Far Within
by MungoJerry
Summary: The universe is an infinite place, full of countless worlds and possibilities. When a creature of darkness with a pale shape seeks to crawl out of its hole like a spider and seize it all,it sets into motion events that may be its undoing FullSummaryInside
1. Prologue: Newton's Law

Disclaimer: I don't own Nintendo franchises, or any franchises really. If I did, I wouldn't be watering lawns for money. Got…water? This disclaimer applies to all following chapters and any other franchises that appear herein. However, I do own all original characters and plot, you'll be able to figure out which is which, I'm sure. :)  
  
SUMMARY: The universe is an infinite place, full of countless worlds and possibilities. When a creature of darkness with a pale shape seeks to crawl out of its hole like a spider and seize it all, it sets into motion events that may be its undoing. Heroes both likely and un-likely from across the cosmos will be thrown into a journey unlike any they have ever taken, leading down roads they never anticipated, one of webs and questions, one that leads…Far Within…  
  
INCLUDES (but is not limited to):  
  
Dragons  
  
Aliens  
  
Dramatic Escapes  
  
True Love  
  
Family Values  
  
High Adventure  
  
Inner Personal Self Discovery  
  
Psychedelic Sci-Fi  
  
Cybernetic Armor  
  
Swords  
  
A Big Fat Cast  
  
A Wise Dude  
  
and More Twists than Shirley Temple's Hair!  
  
Woo! Sounds exciting, huh?! Huh?! YES? (I'll just assume the best.) Let's get started!   
  
This fic is rated PG-13 for Violence; may not be suitable for children under the age of 13.  
  
"Lives alter, shadows die…who can perceive the Plan?" Silas  
  
"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction." Newton's Third Law  
  
Prologue: Newton's Law  
  
It watched as the dark mist curled around in the empty space, if it was indeed mist. It often thought that maybe it could be smoke, or clouds, or dust…but it was something more. It was sure. There was nothing solid to cling to here in the vast Emptiness. But that was fine. It had no need for surface and stability. Stars and motes glimmered, hung in space. Where from, none could tell. Maybe they weren't even stars, maybe they were hopes or dreams or ideas. They wouldn't last long, not there. Not when It resided there.   
  
It had no real form, but oft' times it would take the form of a hand, a manipulative body. It considered itself a bit poetic in taking on this form. It was right. It was a hand of Fate, or it considered itself one. It delighted in pain, in the screams of small children woken from heinous nightmares, nightmares that It had been a part of, carefully cultivated.   
  
For now, It was still. Thinking. The motes moved furiously, agitated, as if trying to escape from their world of deep gloom. It was planning.   
  
The hand-like form fell apart and it became a strange shroud of vagueness once more. It struck out a tenuous tendril into the smokey shadows of Nothing and they swirled and cleared, leaving an image. It was a window, a view of a time. A place. It showed an ancient battlefield, one from a war it had gladly taken part in. The Earth here was scarred and stained, the lush grass all but torn away but for a few scorched patches…except for one green patch, and it was growing. It hated the stalwart little huddle of green...but It couldn't destroy it because it kept coming back. The grass continued growing, expanding, healing the field. How It hated the grass...It had eradicated that grass during the Imprisoning War and it dared to come back. Yet It couldn't touch it…the thing shrieked a high pitched scream and whipped strong and angry tentacles at the window. The View became obscure and faded, almost placidly, back into shifting fog. Hissing belligerently, It coalesced into a white, abstract hand once more. It wanted a surface. It needed to plan.   
  
With a wave of Its finger a platform appeared and It settled on it, hanging in the Nothingness. The platform itself looked like a round, slate monolith with deep grooves, slowly spinning. It needed to think.  
  
There was something it desired. The motes gleamed brighter, as if they were laughing at him, shining through whirling shadows.   
  
Screaming, It collapsed in form, raked infinitely long claws across the Emptiness. Destruction! And anger. It came back to itself and huddled in the center of the newly gouged platform. It would get what It wanted.  
  
Slowly, the idea came and It formulated a plan. It messed with the lives of people, destroyed them, strangling the hope from their hearts...but there was more.   
  
The plan formulated and grew. The dark mists swirled and altered, darkening in color, as if irritated, scathed. Trying to hide. It thought, I will start with dreams. All good plans started with dreams. Though those that did often failed.   
  
It would not.  
  
It put Its plan into action.  
  
Right after it had a little bit of fun.  
  
...To be continued...  
  
Next... Ch. 1: There's Enough Scum to Go Around 


	2. Ch 1: There's Enough Scum to Go Around

Ch. 1: There's Enough Scum to Go Around   
  
The cantina was not a derelict place by far, but it didn't look any better either. The lighting was a nasty yellow from dirty hanging lamps and shadows seemed to seep out of the corners, seeking to grab those who stalked too close. A swirling haze occupied what must have been the ceiling, encouraged by those embracing their demons… Luckily, Samus Aran had some efficient filters built into her helmet.  
  
She passed by a small sign hanging on a wall that said "NO WEAPONS." Ironically, a bullet was buried deep into the center of the first "O." The hum and whine of tiny servomotors filled her ears as she sat down at an un-occupied booth with a sordid table. The stuff they served had better be cheap. As Samus finished this thought, a frightened looking young waiter came up to her table. It was easy to see why he was so skittish, the place was crawling with monstrous beings. There were fearsome looking creatures with teeth and dark, malevolent eyes. She wasn't that much of a prize herself, walking bionic armor with a cannon for an arm. What was a kid like him working here for…?   
  
"M-may I take your order please?"   
  
"I'll have some water, thanks."   
  
"W-we don't have any..." Mizz Aran could not afford to get intoxicated tonight, ESPECIALLY tonight, but she was too thirsty.   
  
"Then get me some dihydrogenousoxide," and she handed him a ready typed up "recipe," the elements needed to make the drink. Technology was amazing these days, you could whip up a compound within minutes. The kid didn't seem too smart, he wouldn't figure it out. "And for goodness sake be CAREFUL when you handle it!" Samus cried out in false warning. Nodding, the kid ran off to the mixer.  
  
A few minutes later he brought back her "H2O," nice and fresh and hopefully clean. Samus took off her helmet so that she could actually drink it, carefully placing it on the table, and was un-surprised by the various gasps that sprung from the other customers. She looked up.   
  
"What? Never seen a human female before?" With an absent minded chirp, a cricket hopped off her table. All those beasts that could, blinked, then returned to what they were doing the moment before.   
  
After a few monotonous hours of enduring the suffocating atmosphere, hours marked by the occasional angry squeal and blaster shot, her dwindling patience paid off. As the scarred front door to the club whisked open, many of the aliens grunted or huffed. There were a few growls and high pitched noises mixed in.   
  
The young waiter dashed under Samus's table.   
  
Samus put back on her battle worn helmet.   
  
"Just stay under the table okay, kid?" He nodded. Samus sighed and carelessly brought up her canon, pulling the trigger to power up the power beam shot, and aimed at the door. She'd wasted enough time just gathering dust at that nasty booth.  
  
Her mood was an unpleasant one.  
  
The door was still half open…was here target suspecting something? The charge shot whined to its peak of power as a flurry of movement from the door caught her waning attention and she fired. The poor wounded sign's last moments were marked by a flash of actinic light.   
  
Samus growled, "Blast it!" There was only one idiot that could dodge that shot, and it wasn't her quarry.   
  
"Sammy! Hold on, don't shoot!"   
  
Roaring with rage, Samus covered the distance between herself and her new quarry in a few strides.   
  
"Captain James Falcon, you bunghole! What are you doing here?!" She towered over the still crouching form of the blue flight-suited racer, who straightened up and retorted, "See here, broad! You can't go telling me what to do…! Hey, when did we get on middle name terms, hmmm?" The waiter cautiously looked out from under the table about the same time as the rest of the club's occupants began placing bets on who would shoot, or sucker punch, first. Some simply began leaving the cantina; a row between two of the galaxy's most feared bounty-hunters was not something one wanted to be in the middle of, especially if one was an angry woman in a mechanical super suit and the other was a burly pilot of an F-Zero racing craft.   
  
Samus became very still…then exploded in a mildly controlled way.  
  
"Don't. Call. Me. Broad. And stop trying to establish some connection between us."  
  
Captain Falcon got a confused look on his face before replying, "Easy does it, Sammy, I'm just wondering how you figured out that my middle name was James, I've never told anyone." Silence reigned for a few heart beats. "And besides, your shoulders are 'broad' enough."  
  
Samus couldn't respond to this immediately, caught in a maelstrom of extreme irritation, confusion, and outright anger. Finally, she sorted them out, trying to calm herself and prevent a tragic accident, and instead responded with a simmering stew of irritation and anger combined. "Captain Falcon, just get out before you ruin everything." She pointed out the door.  
  
"But-," the Captain stuttered.  
  
"Out!"  
  
"Who says I'm going to ruin everything?"  
  
With that, Samus flew across the room and smacked into the floor. An alien stood in her stead, more alarming looking than any Captain Falcon had ever seen. The creature was tall and wiry, with obsidian black bone spikes jutting out of its back, arms, head, and legs…The triangular head with its jutting jaw sat atop a thin black neck with orb like eyes on either side. Its body was overrun with wires…and it was armed with razor-like claws on its right hand that mirrored slippery light. The other hand had claws too, but they weren't sheathed in metal. Maybe the guy got metal implants…   
  
Falcon processed all this in the few seconds just before he was painfully thrown against the wall by a backhand from Porcupine, as he had now named it. He fell down to the floor and into a crouch as Porcupine raked the wall above his head, using his momentum to spring back up and throw all his weight behind a fiery punch aimed at the creature's midsection, heaving the monster across the club and into a table. The terrified customers of the once relatively peaceful bar erupted in snorts and screams and blubbering, rushing in tides to get out the single exit.  
  
Then he remembered. "Samus!" Captain Falcon struggled not to be carried out with the rest of the oncoming crowd as Porcupine slowly began to rise and move towards Samus's still form, baring its teeth. "Get up, girly!"  
  
Samus opened her eyes, snapping into awareness. The creature was poised above and swiftly coming down with its pointy elbow, a painfully clear killing move aimed at her visor.  
  
She rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the creature's speared elbow as it smashed into the floor with a sickening crunch. As the angry E.T. wrenched its elbow out of the floorboards, Samus got on her feet and fired a screaming missile that smacked into the surprised beast and exploded.  
  
Samus shielded her visor from the bright flash with her hand, remaining upright by leaning into the miniature shockwave and flame. When the smoke cleared, the air was full of wafting bits of ash and smoke from small fires. Lying on the floor, clearly dead, was the creature, something, black and glistening in the new daylight oozing out of its mouth. Samus frowned and growled, "That's not my quarry either...dangit." J. Falcon hefted himself from behind a table and walked over to Samus.   
  
"That was quick," then, cringing at the sight on the floor, "Ewww…what do you mean that's not your quarry?" Actually, he was more interested in the fact that the creature wasn't in mushy pieces. He reasoned that it must have a strong exoskeleton-  
  
"It's NOT my quarry, this wasn't the thing I was waiting for…and probably will NEVER FIND. Thank you, Captain Falcon, thank you for taking away my week's salary and wasting my valuable time." She began to exit the ruined cantina. Captain J. Falcon stood with his mouth open, "HEY! I saved your life..! Can't we talk this over?"  
  
"No you didn't. I'm the one who plugged the big black surprise, remember? I blame you for my misfortune. I'm not talking to you. Go away."  
  
"Oh…" Falcon stood there as Samus left the wreckage, feeling stung and looking forlorn. As he began to walk away he muttered to himself, "Why can't she be more…I dunno…subtle? I wasn't hitting on her anyway…maybe I should work on my people skills…"  
  
No one noticed the ripple of air that passed over the unfortunate black alien. Nor the young waiter, of whom fearfully slunk away in the opposite direction of Samus, trying to hide a peculiar appendage.  
  
...To be continued...  
  
Next... Ch. 2: Old Friends 


	3. Ch 2: Old Friends

Chapter 2: Old Friends  
  
"I'm bored."  
  
"Me too."  
  
"Not so loud! Fox is trying to get some sleep, he's had a long day," Krystal snapped as she thwacked Falco Lombardi over the head with her staff, which she happened to be polishing at the moment. She then commenced with furiously rubbing the area that she had touched Falco with. Bloody bird. Probably had lice…  
  
Falco carefully rubbed his head. "Hey, not so hard! That's a metal rod you're hitting people with."  
  
"Oh, please. Your skull is thick enough to withstand the punishment," Krystal retorted with a sneer.  
  
Slippy Toad looked a bit thoughtful before adding, "You know, she is right…"  
  
"I know," Falco said, "I have a very thick skull."  
  
"Then you shouldn't mind me whacking it again." Once more the staff came down on Falco's feather pate with a satisfying KABONG.  
  
"Ow! I've had a long day too, you know…gimme' a break!"  
  
The three of them were gathered around a small card table, trying to whittle the time away. Slippy was resting his big green head on the table, a bunch of spare parts littering his personal space and a forgotten screw driver in his hand. Falco, dressed in his snazzy black leathers, feet on the table threatening to knock over the small pile of mechanical parts, passed the time by staring at the ceiling and playing with his black headband. His strategy wasn't very effective considering the ceiling got boring after a while and there was only so much one could do with a headband. Krystal just polished her staff and hummed the occasional song, clad in her typical attire; a gold and white bikini top coupled with a flowing loin cloth and bits of gold armor and jewelry. Occasionally she would gripe at the other two with her distinctly English accent. It was all very exciting. Right.  
  
"Speaking of you being involved in work, I hope this "friend" of yours is reliable. I think I'm going to go insane if I stay up here doing nothing for much longer," Krystal said, breaking the silence. Falco took his feet off the table and rested his head on his arms…wings…things…   
  
"Ooo…wouldn't want that now, would we?"  
  
Krystal slammed her staff down on her knees, "Are you begging for it or what?!"  
  
"Hey, hey! C'mon you two, knock it off!" Slippy said, "Ya'll know better."  
  
Peppy Hare moved his spectacles higher on his graying nose and contemplatively watched the rest of the team's nattering from a distance, comfortably situated on a cushioned spinning chair. They were on the littered main deck of the Great Fox, hanging in space above the planet Nusella, awaiting confirmation from "control" that it was safe for them to dock somewhere. The panorama from the deck's main view port offered a spectacular view of the planet in all its purple-brown glory, a clay crescent amid a shower of sparks. They were here to pick up a tip from an old contact of Falco's, and had been assured a private "air strip" somewhere down there.   
  
Peppy momentarily wondered what was taking so long. Though the Great Fox was shiny and new from repairs made possible by the Dino Planet job, it could by no means orbit up here forever. Not to mention everyone would get really bored really fast. He had already seen an example of the team's antics. He made a mental note of avoiding Krystal's wrath.  
  
Peppy sighed and thought to himself, we are a team, aren't we?   
  
One year after the escapade on Dinosaur Planet, (Fox had noted that the name was a little…uncreative), the Star Fox team had come back together and was, in a sense, renewed; the excitement and adventure was back, the arwings no longer neglected. The team even included a new member, a blue she fox named Krystal, the first female on the Star Fox team. There was also ROB, long time maintenance worker of the Great Fox. ROB was a robot driven by artificial intelligence, lovingly constructed by Slippy with spare parts and rare chip work. The living machine had a life of its very own, and was beloved by the team.   
  
There was one other official member, but the Prince Tricky didn't count…  
  
Peppy sighed again. It was a good feeling. The Great Fox was back in commission. Fox had a lady-friend. Fox, the closest thing he had ever had to a son. Things were finally coming together. Now, if only they would stay that way.  
  
As if on cue, a startling crash coupled with a shout came from the living quarters.   
  
From Fox's room.  
  
…I'm not going in.  
  
Of course not…  
  
Who are you? A laugh like a gentle breeze invaded Fox's mind. It stirred the purple mist that surrounded him…or was it smoke? He couldn't tell, it didn't want him to know. It had a life of its own.  
  
Who are you?  
  
Don't you know? Fox's blood ran cold and, naturally, he began to run. Since when was there ground here?  
  
Don't you…want to know?  
  
No! And there was no more ground.  
  
"Fox! FOX! Wake up before I clout you over the head!" Krystal yelled straight into Fox's big furry ear. Falco , standing in the doorway, muttered, "Hypocrite…"  
  
Krystal scowled at him, "Stop griping and help me get him back into his bunk." She was crouched beside Fox, who was sprawled on the floor next to his bed. The clap-on-clap-off light in the room was bright as day, newly installed.  
  
Krystal grabbed Fox's shoulder while Falco got his feet. "Ok, on count of three. One…two…three-- HEAVE!" And Fox was jostled awake by landing on his rumpled bed, which protested with a wiry creak. Krystal dusted off her hands, "There. He wasn't that heavy." Fox just lay their looking dazed and confused, blinking in the bright lights. Not one to wear pajamas, he was still dressed in his green, sleeve-less jump-suite and white vest. His lucky red bandana was tied around his neck.  
  
Peppy's sandy voice echoed down the darkened hallway, Peppy himself making his way slowly to their location with the help of Slippy. "Is everything okay?"  
  
"Yeah, pokey! Everything's great!" Falco yelled back, then he turned to Fox. "Hey, buddy, you alright?" Fox, still dazed, nodded, "Yeah, could you tone down the lights?"  
  
"Sure." Falco clapped once and the lights dimmed to a less harsh wattage.  
  
Krystal scowled at Falco, then morphed into concerned mode and leaned in close, "Really, Fox. Is everything okay? You look a little worse for wear."  
  
"I said I'm okay, REALLY…could you guys let me get up?" The faces of Krystal and Falco filled whatever vision he had left.  
  
"That's right, let the boy get some air," Peppy ambled into the room, supported by Slippy. Fox growled.  
  
"Ugh, c'mon people I'm not made of glass! It was just a bad dream that's all. Nothing more, nothing less. Happy?" Fox sat up as Peppy sighed and pulled up a chair.  
  
"We're sorry Fox, it's just that you've been the most excitement we've had all day…" Peppy took off his spectacles and rubbed his eyes. Krystal snorted.  
  
"Heh. I was half hoping something had boarded the ship, then we could kill it and have ourselves some fun," she sat cross legged next to Peppy, staff in hand.  
  
Fox winced. "Wow, you guys must really be bored out of your brains for Krystal to be that, well, that bloodthirsty..."  
  
"Tell me about it!" Falco blurted out, "We've been up here for hours and I've had to endure her the entire time! ENTIRE TIME! Polish, thwack the bird, polish, thwack the bird, polish, insult the bird--"   
  
Krystal got halfway up and looked at him with murder in mind, "You're complaining! It's your contact!"  
  
"SETTLE DOWN! Criton..." Fox sighed heavily, stood up and stretched, then turned his attention back to the rest of the crew, "C'mon, let's get back on the main deck. Falco's contact could have beeped us by now…where's ROB?" Everyone suddenly turned to Slippy.  
  
"Uh…I don't know…isn't he on the main deck..? That's where I saw him last," Slippy replied haltingly. "He…is usually with us. I'm surprised he's not down here by now."  
  
"Well, let's get going up to him then," Peppy used his cane to lift himself into a stand, "C'mere, Slip, and give me a hand to the lift."  
  
The little red light on the arm of Fox's command chair blinked on and off in a soundless rhythm, the only kinetic movement on the darkened main deck. Someone had sent a transmission and Fox was perplexed. Where had ROB gone? He should have answered it by now, or at least informed the rest of them that there was a message. This could prove a problem, but he couldn't worry about just yet.  
  
"Fox, hit the button!" Falco was literally bouncing from foot to foot in anticipation.  
  
"Alright alright! Yeeee…I am the leader you know-!" And Fox sailed through the air, his target, the button, slapping it before Falco could.  
  
Falco protested, "Hey! No fair!"  
  
"Who cares! Message!"  
  
The holographic transmitter buzzed to life and filled the room with electric light. What showed up was the desperate face of a young man…but something was different about him. None of them could place what it was. The sound finally kicked in and he spoke.  
  
"Falco! It's your old bro, Jacabo. Where are you? Look, I'm sorry about the parking space…I ran into a bit of a complication, which is why I'm going to have to cut this real short." The speaker's forehead was dotted by a sheen of sweat. He paused, took a breath, then went on, "Anyway, you know there's a price on my head! That's why I know you'll be understanding about the wait. Okay now, there is a nice, discreet drop point a good eight miles from the main city where I am, hidden in the rocks. Nobody should know of your presence, we're by-passing the landing monitors. Be quick. We'll have to meet somewhere different than the usual. Try the Ur-Jax. Jacobo out." And the transmission fizzed out of existence.  
  
...To be continued...  
  
Next... Ch. 3: Intrigue and Oddities 


	4. Ch 3: Intrigue and Oddities

Ch 3: Intrigue and Oddities

"Is this planet smoggy or what?" said Krystal, face pressed against the main view port, trying to look past her reflection in the thick, cool glass, "I wonder how they even breath down there." 

Falco glanced up from a control port across the deck. "It is one of the most industrialized planets in the galaxy." Inputting some information into the port he then scanned it onto a screen suspended from the ceiling. 

"Yeah, most of the parts for the Great Fox came from here. High quality stuff," Slippy added, fine tuning some machinery on the card table. A few sparks leapt up into his face and he muttered under his breath, "Dangit!" 

Peppy stirred in his age-induced sleep.

"Of course it's also a gathering place for some of the lowliest insects in the universe…" Fox said. He leaned into the back of his swivel chair and spun around. "BAH! Why did we have to rendezvous with your…friend…here of all places? If he knew there was such a huge bounty on 'im-"

"It's appropriate. And besides, it's better to hide in plain sight, right? He didn't want to attract attention to our meeting. Stuff like this happens twenty-four seven on Nusella, it all kinda blurs together." Falco gave a triumphant cry and punched a button on the control panel. "There!"

A satellite image popped up on all of the data screens. Fox stopped spinning and sat forward, chin on furry fist. "And what are we looking at exactly..?"

Falco grunted. "Ur-Jax. It's a big, fat collection of rocky formations northeast of the main city, one heck of a maze. UGH! It's really going to be a pain there; you can get easily turned around…"

Krystal turned away from the brown and violet-hued vista of Nusella's passing stratosphere, "So you've been there before?"

"Yep," Falco nodded. "A few operations of our own went down there, that's why he chose it this time."

Fox interrupted Krystal before she could inquire further. "What do you think happened to Jacabo, Falco? Any idea as to who could be on his tail?"

Falco sighed, a sound he rarely made, and leaned against the port. "I don't know. He was in a bit of a rush though, if that says anything, and not much puts him out like that, so-"

"We're entering the upper troposphere, stop with the talk! Am I the only one paying attention?" Peppy, wide awake, was working with the controls at a console on the upper deck, bringing up the normal statistics, "Dag-nabbit! Where's ROB? This is his job, you know…SLIPPY!"

Slippy jumped in surprise, scattering supplies like beads on a broken necklace, "What! What is it?"

Peppy placed both paws on the polished railing and leaned towards the disoriented frog. "You're supposed to be looking for ROB! Find out what's wrong!" Slippy leapt to his feet, scattering more parts, then scuttled off to the lift. "And FOX!"

Fox Mcloud jumped out of his chair and to the floor with a clang, "SIR!"

"You're supposed to be the one giving orders around here!"

"SIR YES SIR!"

The Great Fox slowly descended through the clouds and haze of Nusella to her scarred surface like a giant metal bumble-bee, heralding the destruction of the planet. Naturally, the Team didn't have this in mind, not at the moment anyway. All they sought was solid earth and a place to stretch their limbs. Finding Falco's nervous little friend took the back burner position.

Red dust kicked up as the ship set down in a bowl just big enough for it to set-down in. In every direction stretching as far as the eye could see were towering formations of red and purple rock of various hue, shaped by wind and time and the hand of God. It was an awesome sight accentuated by the eerie howling of the wind through crevasses and hollows. Nusella's star continued its steady descent, slowly deepening the coming purple gloom.

Fox ran down the landing ramp and leapt onto the ground, like a child recently told they were pardoned for raiding the cookie jar, falling on his knees and kissing the red dirt. 

Krystal came next, unsteadily walking to Fox's side and giving him a look. "Freak." Falco also sprinted down and started making sand angels. "Sweet, sweet GROUND!"

"Freaks."

"I'm going to stay with Peppy and watch the ship, alright?" shouted Slippy from the top of the boarding ramp.

Falco answered from the ground, "Sure sure, you're a pain on ground missions anyhow." He stood up and dusted the fine powder of red from his leathers and feathers. Fox did the same, rubbing the dirt off his muzzle and realizing the wisdom in Krystal's words. "And be sure to look for ROB!"

Krystal stretched and noisily cracked her neck and back, "Can we get going? I want to get this over with."

Fox nodded his shaggy head, "Yeah yeah…I'm just happy to be down here. Lead the way, Falco." Falco nodded and, blaster in hand, led the way down a narrow, color banded passage.

"Hey," Fox said, turning to Krystal, "I thought you were anxious to be out in open air."

"Well, I am, but I want as little to do with Falco's shady friend as possible…"

Fox nodded again, slightly, in understanding. That last thing that needed to happen to the Star Fox Mercenary Unit was for it to get caught up in affairs of a criminal nature.

Samus looked up into the sky, partially hidden in the shadows of a dilapidated building. Even through her green-tinted visor she could tell that the firmament was orange, yellow, and a pale violet, like a gauzy baby's blanket comforting a scaly beast. The view would have been better from the top of the rotting edifice at her back, but hovering patrols made jumping from roof to roof dangerous, even if it made observation, movement, and tracking easier. She may be considered a bounty hunter, but she wasn't of the unscrupulous kind, and Nusella wasn't welcoming to her sort. There was a particular gang of "pirates" she was sure would dance with joy if she were destroyed. She could probably find a small cell of theirs here if she looked hard enough. Grinning under her helmet, Samus rethought her "blanket" analogy. It was obvious that this planet was no playground. The wisps of smoke wafting from a ruined cantina a few blocks away attested to the fact.

Across the street a young man dressed in server's garb urgently spoke into a telecommunicator. He…(or could "he" be an "it"?)…shone with a sheen of nervous sweat, his eyes darting around like that of an unwilling gladiator thrown into the lion's pit. A third hand held the edge of the console in a white-knuckled grip.

The lioness in question smiled slightly. He hadn't been an easy find. The waiter's getup had fooled her, embarrassingly enough, but after the explosion he had caught her eye. Not to mention the nervousness helped pull everything together.

Her target stood right in front of her.

She had originally decided to attack straight away, but now that he had made this call, she decided to follow him instead.

"…sorry…trouble…different…usual…" The last words Samus missed.

It seemed her bounty was involved in something interesting. Something a small agency in the Galactic Federation, hadn't told her about.

She had encountered a lot of things on this mission that they hadn't told her about, which made her doubt their intentions. Things like the fact that the alien she was hunting could retract his third arm and subtly shape-shift. Information detailing his purpose for being on Nusella.

She had stumbled onto something here, something that made the hairs stand up on the back of her neck, but she didn't know why or what it was. Now she had to follow him, and find what was at the end of string. Perhaps he was connected to a crime ring of valuable, dangerous outlaws…or maybe something more sinister.

Or maybe he was ordering take-out.

Either way, she wanted to find out. When faced with the situation as a whole, her nose curled.

Although it seemed her present position was a stroke of luck. "Thank you, Captain Falcon…" Samus said under her breath. It seemed his bad tact had helped things turn out for the better. Her bounty switched off the comm and leaned on the console.

The creature across the street abruptly looked in Samus's direction, directly at her face and locking eyes. Her breath stopped. She couldn't even move. His face was so human, the dark, glazed eyes filled with terror and pain other emotions that she couldn't even begin to interpret. Then its gaze slowly shifted to the left and continued so, wandering. He hadn't seen her.

Samus willed her lungs to do their work again, a pang of pity nearly shattering her resolve.

She shook her head and stepped back further into the shadows. This was her bounty, she had claimed it as her maze, and she would get it. The Galactic Federation had said she was hunting a hardened criminal, a perpetrator whose crimes reached out across eight systems, so terrible that he must be stopped before he caused any more problems. However, now that he stood across the street from her, she found that he couldn't be any older than eighteen or twenty, and he looked afraid. Remorseful even. How could a boy like this conduct such high scale crimes? Especially when his eyes betrayed so much fear? She relaxed her clenched jaw, wondering if the bounty was even worth collecting. What had she heard once? …Gold, worse poison to men's souls…

Why hadn't the Federation given her more details? Why weren't they out here themselves?

A soft beeping snapped her back into reality as she realized that the young man was making another call. His eyes narrowed as he spoke and his grip on the console became tighter, prompting Samus to wonder whether either the hand or the console would snap under the strain.

"…me…them…be there…Ur-Jax…yes…yes…very funny…out." Ur-Jax. She had never heard of the place before. Another bar? Or the back room of a shady store? What was happening now?

Once again the console was switched off. 

She watched, shocked and confused, as the man slumped onto his knees and began to weep, curling up into a ball. Odd looking passer-bys didn't bat an eye, they'd seen misery enough on the streets before, and it to no longer moved them. A few minutes later he wiped his nose messily onto his coat sleeve and began making his way up the street.

Appearances…what was the true nature of her quarry? A hardened criminal or an unfortunate boy?

Samus followed, intrigued, smoothly keeping to the shadows and moving along with a swift flash of metal and whir of hushed servomotors.

Did curiosity really kill the cat?

A second shadow kept close behind.

...To be continued...

Next... Ch. 4: Ur-Jax

A/N: How many old wives' sayings and allusions can one safely cram into the last few paragraphs of a chapter! YOU BE THE JUDGE. 


	5. Ch 4: UrJax

Ch. 4: Ur-Jax

So Samus followed the wanted "man," his steps echoing down the damp streets in a fashion that made them seem louder and more ominous than they really were. 

Nightfall crept silently across the sky like a wild thing. The red sun, its size exaggerated by the planet's atmosphere, rested on the very edge of the horizon and continued to submerge, marking the coming of dealings best done in the dark. More the better for her purpose, she supposed. For a moment her mind wandered, picturing what sort of nightmares dwelt in the city late at night, then returned to the task at hand, automatically selecting a new shadow to slip into as she stepped over the fresh carcass of a giant crustacean.

After an hour of monotonous creeping, the stalk finally led to the city's monolithic main gate, a mammoth opening in the thick, stone defense wall. Torches flanked the maw, illuminating four shiftless looking armored guards with their primitive light. Why something more up to date wasn't used mystified her. Coming to an abrupt end, sand and piles of decaying metal replaced the paved road. The armor bedecking the guards, cheap only in look, glinted like the eyes of animals.

Samus was almost taken aback when the man-thing continued to stride forward, his body beginning to fade and expand, taking on a viscous, almost vaporous form that sunk to the ground. Flowing over the grit and rock like stealthy morning fog, the goo left through the gate without drawing any sort of attention whatsoever.

The new form violently tugged at her memory. "…it can't be…it can't.." Setting her jaw for the worst, she scanned the creature; her logs revealed mutated DNA, but nothing conclusive. Unconsciously, she fingered her forearm, an area once occupied by a row of dangerous spikes, but now all that took residence there was a series of chevron patterned pieces of armor.

What the heck was she getting herself into!

But flexibility was another weapon in her vast arsenal, right next to patience and diligence. She'd dealt with worse and could handle something as simple as this. 

She hoped. Both that it was so simple and that she could deal with it.

Shrugging off her suspicions so that she could concentrate, but not dismissing them completely, (she knew they'd serve her later), Samus grumbled to herself and collapsed into her suit's Mauru Mauri mode, an armored sphere roughly a meter in diameter. Even she wasn't sure how it worked, having been given it, and her suit, by a benevolent race on a far-away planet when she was young. This was the only discreet way she could think of getting past the guards, but it was hard to miss a giant orange ball with brightly glowing cracks-

Her thoughts broke off as three new guards, blue tinted armor dully gleaming in the half light, ambled up to the ones on duty. The one in the lead, a bald man, spoke:

"Evening, Ronald, anything interesting?"

The guard in question scratched his unshaven chin and rigidly replied, "Nope, not a thing."

"It's been unusually quiet actually," said another.

"Really? No jawas or Tleixu?"

"Not even a smuggler." 

The other guard grunted, "Maybe we scared 'em off, eh?"

"Sure, like an Austarian dragon to a goomba."

"A what?"

"Never mind…"

"No, really, what's a goomba?"

Samus took full advantage of the opportunity and rolled past the preoccupied guards into the twilight of the Nusellian wilderness, bouncing over rocks on the way like a possessed sports ball.

"UMPH!" the segmented sphere grunted as it hit rock, finishing its premature plummet into a ravine. Samus berated herself for not seeing it as the ball shrugged and relaxed into her bionic looking form. It seemed fate was out to get her tonight, or to at least give her a few more dents than she was used to. 

After rolling through the gates Samus had kept up with her quarry as he coalesced into his previous form and started off through the formless landscape and into the tangled, shadowed passages of the Ur-Jax, now just a city of dark, amorphous forms looming up out of the ground like petrified trees. It was high on her list of bizarre landscapes, and located a good distance away from the city, now only a glimmer on the horizon. That was an hour ago and now she was here. 

She got to her feet, trying to regain her lost dignity, and climbed to the sandy lip of the ravine, hung there for a moment, smooth metal encased fingers scraping for purchase. Luckily, the weird waiter kid had been a little too preoccupied to notice her little accident. He was busily scanning a wrinkled rock face, muttering to himself in an incoherent manner.

"I'm coming…I'm coming…where is it? Where are you?" He slowly passed his fingers over the walls that rose forbiddingly above them both.

Samus cautiously lifted herself out of the ravine and followed bent low as she placed one foot in front of the other in the meager starlight. It reflected off of the white of the waiter's dirty server's jacket and her alien armor, giving them each a ghostly luminescence. The eerie sound of the man's fingers scraping the walls became almost soothing, an inseparable part of the wind.

She had only crept three steps when he suddenly cried out and disappeared.

Night fell as Krystal turned her attention from the spectacular stone of the Ur-Jax and trained it on Falco. "How far is eight miles in Nusellian metric?"

Falco stopped and took a deep and exasperated breath. "Well…eight miles? Is there really a difference? How am I supposed to know?"

Krystal looked a bit thoughtful, ignoring his smart remark and swishing her plated tail, before replying, "Well, I ask because I couldn't see the city from the Great Fox."

Falco smirked. "Well, you shouldn't. It's camouflaged to blend in with its surroundings."

"Fitting, isn't it?" Fox interjected from Falco's left.

Krystal continued down the path and said, "I suppose so…how do they do it?"

"Color composition, the architecture of the buildings, I'm sure there's a light reflector on the dome or something." Falco said noncommittally. Nodding, Krystal relinquished her lead to Falco and tried not to lose him in the relatively peaceful dark. He had gotten used to her questions long ago.

"Hold up! I can't see you very well."

Falco slowed his pace and replied, "I thought Foxes were supposed to have good eyesight?"

"In the DAYTIME maybe…"

"Aren't you nocturnal?"

"I certainly am not. I can't say anything for other vulpines."

"Well MY eyesight is just fine. Krystal is just a weirdo," Fox said, "Which would explain why she doesn't even know anything about her own SPECIES!"

Krystal cuffed him hard in the head, "Knock it off!"

They had been traveling like this for some time now, trusting Falco's memory and sharp vision to guide them through the endless paths and curling forks of the Ur-Jax. The wind always seemed to blow their fur and feathers the wrong way, but it was better than the stale air of the ship. They reached another fork and Falco stopped and fluffed his feathers in agitation. "Um…lessee…was it left and follow the slime green stripe or right and climb into the upper tunnels?"

A resounding clack echoed throughout the passages in answer, sounding from every direction and bouncing off the walls and into their faces.

Moments later a blue glow filled the miniature canyon as Krystal's staff zinged to life in an aura of flames. The safeties on Fox and Falco's blasters clicked off as they swiftly backed together, Fox scanning the skies while Krystal and Falco scanned the paths on either side with darting eyes, suddenly as observant as any bird of prey.

"What was that?" Krystal shifted her weight back and forth, her tail flicking madly. Fox's just waved slowly, only just a little more calmly.

"I don't know…Falco? Any ideas? What's out here at night?"

"I couldn't be sure. The boys always spoke of lights and snakes and the like."

Krystal shifted her attention for a split second, "What 'Boys'? Lights! SNAKES!"

"Yah!" Fox fired into the night and hit the top of the wall, raining splinters of rock down on their heads.

Falco's eyes flashed, "What is it?"

"What did you see?"

"Quiet!" Fox snapped. Falco and Krystal shifted attention back to their respective watches.

Krystal said softy, "What's up there?"

Fox's gun quivered slightly, "Something moved in one of the hollows…like a ripple in the air."

"Ripple? -" Falco sounded dubious.

"There it is again!" The stars that shone over the edge of the wall seemed warped for a split second before coming into focus again. Fox had never seen anything like it before, except in his worst nightmare. A dark dream where he saw through another's eyes as he was scooped into the air and devoured by a giant, invisible horror, firelight licking at the edges of its form.

It had been the dream he had lived on Dinosaur Planet.

"Easy boys," Krystal soothed, breaking Fox out of his thoughts, trying her best not to fall into her own fear-trap. Anything could be hiding up there. Like a giant snake.

Falco was still. "I see it..! Or saw it now, for a split second. There were three."

Fox whispered now, "Three what?"

"Blurs."

"What do we do, Fox?" Krystal asked.

"Wait." There was nothing else they could do, unless-

"There could be more," Falco said, "it could be a-"

"Shh!" Fox was still for a moment, then closed his eyes, "Falco, double duty. Keep an eye on the sky and the area up-ahead."

Falco understood. "Gotcha'."

Fox's breathing quieted as his ears twitched slightly. They were the perfect auditory instrument, spoon shaped and sensitive, catching the slightest sound. Employing them now he heard scuttling on the rocks above…then a crackling, electric…? Something rough and guttural sounding…some sort of speech...Fox tensed-

"They're moving south west," Krystal uttered. Fox broke out of his reverie and joined Falco in staring at her, eyes wide and mouth agape. She was leaning on her staff, eyes closed as if asleep, soft blue ears swiveling like windblown leaves. "…heading away from us. And the Great Fox." Her eyes finally opened and she looked up at them, smiling serenely at the looks on their faces. "I'm a weirdo, remember? I've been trained in this stuff. Shall we carry on? I'm sure Falco has remembered the way by now."

A giant's leap away, among the lost wind and starlight, Samus froze, then rushed forward. Where was he? Where had he gone? After hours of tailing had she lost him? He couldn't have collapsed into that strange goo-like form because it took a few moments and she would have seen him. That she knew of he couldn't have disappeared entirely either, though he could have teleported. An unexpected ability? But, he had cried out in surprise which implied that something unexpected had happened… 

Bringing two fingers up to her slick visor she tapped the side and activated scan mode, lights on either side, darkened earlier for the sake of stealth, now brightened to compensate for the darkness. She turned slowly in a circle. There was nothing suspicious that she could see. No life signs either. Any long range radar was hindered by rock, which, on further inspection, turned out to be volcanic…scans also spoke of immense concentrations of salt. This used to be a geologically active seabed…and some of those stone towers were inactive sea chimneys…amazing…stay on task stay on task, she thought to herself.

Samus swept from side to side with her visor and stopped when she saw a dark gaping hole, like a throat in the ground, just a grain away from her feet. It was roughly the diameter of her morphing ball mode, with sides slick and glossy from use that reflected her visor lights. The hole was deep-set in the lower part of the wall, making it difficult to spot. Here was her culprit.

Samus's face was set with an uneasy expression as she examined the steep grade of the tunnel, which seemed to go on forever, down into the stomach of the Ur-Jax…either that or it was the play-ground slide from heck.

Taking a deep breath, she slipped into the tunnel feet-first and slid into the blackness, opting out of rolling down.

It took her only a few moments to realize she was going too fast. Samus dug the metal heels of her hand and feet into the sides of the tunnel, making an ear ravaging grating noise and throwing up angry sparks. The heat from the friction made her grit her teeth as she slowed down little by little until she finally stopped at the terminus of the tunnel, which emptied out into a large cavern. The stomach, she thought grimly.

Having faith in her balance, Samus peered over the lip of the tunnel into the bottom of the cavern, which housed a large body of water. Scans showed that it was salt water, an ancient lake, and that there were a few non-threatening fish. Crazy lights and lambent reflections from the lights on her helmet writhed across the high, stalactite studded ceiling like snakes.

Finding it safe, Samus leapt into the water and dropped to the scummy bottom like a stone. Completely submerged, she made her way to the far side by simply walking through the murk. Her varia suit made the walk arduous and painfully slow. Upon emerging on the other side of the lake, she felt she could outrun just about anything so free-feeling were her movements, and she made a point of it by running through whatever shallow water remained until she reached dry terrain. There she found that the ancient, finely ground sand was criss-crossed with strange tracks, fresh and otherwise…and some familiar ones leading into yet another tunnel. She sighed.

Samus plunged into the tunnel, watching the variations in the lichens on the wall as it slid past, then stopped short and activated her ice beam. There were voices up ahead. The tunnel widened into another cavern, dotted with earthy-hued outcroppings of basalt thrust up out of the ground. It was lit at the center by a pale light, a growth of bioluminescent lichen casting unearthly shapes on the red-orange walls. Cautious words drifted down the tunnel and were channeled away into the darkness. Samus crept forward into the shadows and listened.

The Jacabo Falco saw before him was not the old Jacabo he knew. Yes, his old friend had been more the quiet type, but he wasn't prone to nervousness and the darting, wary eyes of the three armed creature that stood in front of him. Standing here in the middle of a cavern, deep within Nusella, the guy looked as if he expected the very rocks to jump up and eat him.

"Falco! And friends...you made it!" He wiped the sweat from his brow with a dirty sleeve and approached them, coming out from behind one of the jagged basalt outcroppings that broke up the floor of the cavern.

"Hey, ole' buddy," said Falco, cuffing him lightly on the shoulder, "You look, um, wet…where've you been?"

Jacabo smiled weakly. "Though hell and high-water."

"I'll say…"

Fox said, "Look, I hate to interrupt catch-up time, but we're short on it, really, time I mean." He still had a hand on the grip of his blaster. For him, it had taken an unprecedented amount of time for Falco to decide the way to this funny cave. He wanted to get as far away from those things as possible. Finally, however, Falco had found the right path and led them down narrow tunnel to the place where they now stood. Krystal hadn't enjoyed the tunnel.

Falco nodded and said quietly, "Right, what happened, Jacabo? Is somebody on to us?"

"I'll try to be brief. The Hunter happened to me, and an ufacrey. The cantina's gone," his dark eyes narrowed, and he sat on a smaller outcropping.

Krystal looked up from picking some mud off of her staff, and out of her fur. "A what!"

"You don't know what an ufacrey is?" Jacabo's eyes went wide, then returned to their normal size. He got sheepish looking. It had been a while since he'd mingled with crowds who didn't daily discuss creatures with a taste for the under-belly of society. But then, ufacreys weren't known for being involved with any kind of society.

"It's a big, black spikey monster…but they're usually shy and are pretty dang rare, what was one doing here, J? And the Hunter?" said Falco incredulously, "you give yourself too much credit!"

Krystal looked inquiringly at Fox, who shrugged. He had heard the names bounced around before, but hardly knew anything about whom they belonged to.

"It's true, and Captain Falcon was there too, I'm serious!"

Falco chuckled half-heartedly, "Well, it is the scum-bucket, had to show somewhere...what happened? Sounds like a regular circus!"

"It wasn't a circus, bro! I could have died in there! Falcon and the Hunter teamed up and beat the blood out of that 'crey. It almost got them too, it was acting really outgoing for a 'crey…which leads me into the main reason for my calling you here." 

"Yeah, you said you had some information for us J," Fox said, "fire away."

Jacabo's eyes studied the cavern. "I think…something's goin' down…the big powers are moving…there's talk…" Everyone was quiet now.

"What kind of talk?" Fox couldn't help but feel something go bad in his stomach, he could tell the others were feeling the same way. J's two left arms cradled each other.

"You know, that 'crey, I don't think it was itself…it wasn't the first to act nuts." Jacabo stood again and looked pleadingly into Falco's eyes.

Falco blinked. "Jacabo, what kind of talk?"

"The Pirates are becoming secluded, stopped all shipping and outside contact. The king pins of Nusella are more cautious than usual, there's been strange dealings…someone new is in town, and everyone is either trying to get out of the way and make themselves invisible or get into this someone's good graces." 

"Who is this…someone?" asked Fox, feeling more agitated by the moment. Jacabo was getting visibly more upset, he licked his lips.

"I'm…I'm not sure…listen!" He was beginning to look desperate, his mouth forming words that couldn't get out.

Falco stepped up to Jacabo and put a steadying hand on his shoulder, "Hey, are you okay?" His friend began to shudder violently and whisper incoherently. "Look, are you in trouble with this over-sized wig? You can tell us, you're in good company. We'll help you, you're my brother, remember? I wouldn't leave you hanging…Jacabo?" J's mutterings got steadily louder and clearer. 

"I'm sorry…I'm sorry…I'm sorry…" Over and over again he whispered, a terrible cadence, until he was silenced by the swift whine of renting air and a scythe that jutted through his chest. The glittering barbed blue scythe followed through with its thrust and nearly took off Jacabo's upper half, scattering blue fluid and gels that danced through the air before coming to rest on the grainy floor, where they slithered like possessed slugs to rejoin their master. Falco felt a burning pain slice across his abdomen, followed by a fine, red mist that clouded his already fading vision. Nausea began to take hold, followed by a headache that grew within each fraction of a moment.

Strange, he thought in a confused daze, I felt fine when we left. What the…? "Aagh!" He held his arm tight to his stomach to staunch the bleeding, the other passing through the viscous body of his friend as he slumped to the ground.

Another thought invaded his mind; Jacabo..what have you done, my friend?

Krystal dropped her staff in shock.

Left were Jacabo's fading words.

...To be continued...

Next... Ch. 5: When Worlds Collide 


	6. Ch 5: When Worlds Collide

Ch. 5: When Worlds Collide

Krystal thought she was hallucinating. 

The air had undulated, taking on a barely perceptible form, crackling with short arcs of electricity, behind Jacabo as he broke down. A demonic phantom, it thrust its scythe through Jacabo, as if he wasn't even there, and now--

"FALCO!" She watched as Fox rushed forward with his blaster, getting a few shots off at the empty air, only to be knocked onto his back mid-stride by nothing. Panic coursed through her veins like acid as she returned to herself and lunged for her staff on the sandy floor, bringing the ornate pole to life with her touch and spinning it into position.

Looking up, she saw three warpings; two loomed over Falco's prone form. And two more, positioned on the basalt, distorting the rock, and another to her far right. She took a few desperate steps towards Fox and went rigid when she noticed another hovering over the groaning pilot. It stopped whatever it was doing and moved towards her. The nightmarish outline of a tall, wraith like figure and a pair of glowing, malevolent eyes flickered briefly into sight and passed out of it just as quickly, accompanied by a slight, energetic hum. It gathered itself, as if to attack, but instead let out a fierce roar, loud enough to pain her sensitive eardrums, warm spittle flying out of its mouth and speckling her fur, sending a shudder down her spine to the tip of her tail. The aforementioned appendage puffed to three times its size in protest. 

This was something worse than General Scales, for all his malevolence and lust for power; she had never come against something like these creatures, monsters that faded in and out of existence and attacked like a pack of wolves.

"Fox!"

Her panicked cry jolted Fox. He could see Krystal, her image warped by the presences between them. He felt it again, the fear, but it was a different kind of fear than that produced by the shrine. This was fear like pokers being thrust into his abdomen and memories and sparking white-hot pains of times long past.

With flattened ears and a growing, feral sneer he growled, "No!" On his knees, he violently twisted a knob on his blaster to its most powerful setting, whipped the gun high, and fired a scorching red volley at the nearest group of monsters. They shrieked and scattered, caught off guard, one arching its back in pain while another lunged at Fox with burning eyes and delivered a spin-kick to the side of his head, knocking him to the ground in a splash of sand.

Whatever reserves that held Krystal's hope began to drain like a row of broken hour-glasses; hope like talcum grains of sand washing away in the wind and the rain. Slowly, she realized that that she was backpedaling, and stopped when the blunt angles of an outcropping began to push into her back. The outlines shimmered again, and she saw that she was surrounded by a semicircle of the creatures, their footprints imbedded in the sand. Eight pairs of strange tracks.

She knew she had little time, and had little she could do with it.

Steadily, she felt less mania, and more anger. These were HER friends, her crew, HER life. There were things she wanted to do with it. The word "injustice" bubbled into her head. For them to just spring out of no-where for no reason and kill them all. She felt herself losing control, over everything.

"COME AT ME, YOU BLERY ANIMALS!" She bared her teeth in a vulpine snarl not unlike Fox and lunged forward, ears aslant, bringing her staff downward from on high on what she assumed was a head, moments before another leapt and slashed at the space she formerly occupied. There was an angry roar as the beast blocked her attack with the same blue scythe that cut down her friend, absorbing the force of her blow and simultaneously throwing it back at her, flinging the fox back against the outcropping.

She hit the rock with enough force to have the breath knocked out of her, and fell to the ground in a gasping, crumpled heap. Looking into the swimming images of attackers, she saw their orange eyes narrow as they began to hiss. The hissing turned into a low growling, and then a coughing.

It took her a moment to figure out that they were laughing at her.

Something snapped inside. 

She grabbed her staff again, thrusting it end first like a rock-climbers spike deep into a small crack in the basalt behind her and using it to heave herself to her feet, then pulled it out again, planting it hard into the ground before bringing it back up into ready position.

They stopped laughing. Her attacker flicked its head and the others slinked back, a few coughing a little more of their ill-hyena laugh. Their sudden change in behavior gave Krystal some pause, until she saw the remaining pirate de-cloak and settle into some sort of alien battle position. It gave her a slight gesture with its scythe, which she could now see clearly. The weapon was artificial, with a sharp edge and graceful curve. The blue glow it gave off illuminated the fierce, insectoid nightmare that was her attacker; saurian claws and sinewy muscles that ran with calculated precision into bio-mechanical parts and a shiny, blue-black exoskeleton with a red undertone. On the chest was a red and yellow stamp, denoting who knew what. Elaborate tubing ran through the body like a parasitic worm, climbing up the thick neck and ending at the blunt head. Blue and amber light glinted off of exposed teeth like a series of miniature krysknives; the amber light came from the burning eyes.

Then it hit her like a sack of bricks. She saw what was happening, going to happen, and she saw what she was about to go up against. She had asked for it, of course, but hadn't expected for them all to back off and let her go down in some sort of honor battle! These ruthless monsters!

Her opponent however, knew how these things worked, and became impatient with the pathetic excuse for a warrior before him. With a wide roar, he dashed low and brought his scythe back for a killing blow.

And was stopped short by the revving of a high pitched whine like that of a turbine, followed moments later by a SHOOM as a white blast of energy engulfed the shocked beast in a grating of crystals. When the spots faded from Krystal's eyes, she could see it enclosed in a glossy shell of ice. The other's shrieked and leapt away in fury.

Krystal eyed the lean, insectoid figure, then slowly away from it to the new attacker.

At the other end of the cavern a robotic figure stepped smoothly out of the shadows. It was covered in shining red and gold pieces of bionic armor from head to boot, some of a finer geometric nature while others had a more bionic fit, uneven in thickness but somehow artistic. The sides of the legs were lined in green lights, as was part of the heavy chest plate and the large half-spheres on the shoulders. The right forearm boasted a large, modular canon, glowing white from the within and from even seams in the canon's structure. A deadly row of bladed spines lead up the left forearm. The head; a red helmet with a translucent green visor and filtration tubes. 

Krystal couldn't see what was inside, but it looked angry anyway.

One of the phantom creatures threw itself out of the shadows and set its anger on the humanoid. Ducking and darting right, the figure brought back a metal fist and swung it into the phantom's midsection, rupturing something inside with a noise that made Krystal wince, pitching it forward onto the floor where it sputtered and hissed, finally de-cloaking. They looked worse in death.

The one encased in ice began to shudder and finally broke free with a noise like splintering glass, sagging forward in exhaustion for a moment before fading out of sight, but not before giving her a murdering look. Krystal tried to back away from where it had been last, catching the attention of the humanoid. It seemed to size her up before it said in a garbled voice, "Stay put…" She froze, both at the presence of an actual voice and the realization that there really wasn't much she could do anyway.

Suddenly, another chunk of ice coalesced out of nowhere and plunked to the ground as the humanoid brandished its canon again. There was the sound of padding feet on sand and the humanoid quickly turned left, leaping an unnatural height into the air. Aiming at the floor at the apex of its jump, the humanoid fired another icy blast and came down upon the resulting iceberg with a down kick, shattering it to smithereens. Launching from its crouched position over the shards of ice, the humanoid sprinted forward and leapt over the other frozen monster, gracefully spinning mid flight and firing a carefully aimed missile; neutralizing the creature on ice and another one Krystal hadn't noticed. How did the copper avenger see them?

Krystal's thoughts were interrupted when a garbled roar echoed throughout the cave; it struck her as different because of the inherent note of command it held.

The armored one stopped mid-step and planted, casting its gaze about the cavern, searching for any sign of movement or dangerous life. There was none, only the sound of Falco's labored breathing. Gone were the killer mirages and snarls.

Naturally, so was Jacabo.

"I can't believe it," Krystal heard the Humanoid mutter under its breath as it slowly did a more thorough check for danger. It bent down over Falco, who was shuddering slightly in a fetal position, touching the side of its visor with two fingers and, after a moment, she heard a distinct beeping sound. It did the same to Fox, finally turning to her. Krystal felt hopeful for a moment as she entertained the thought that maybe this armored thing was going to help them…then why hadn't it addressed her? She didn't move.

As the humanoid made its way over to her, bringing its arm back to its side, she thought she could hear the slight sound of servomotors working in the gleaming armor.

With blinding speed the humanoid covered the remaining distance between them and painfully grabbed Krystal by the neck, holding her up and smashing her hard against a nearby outcropping. Her vision spun for a moment and she was dazed by the pain and shock of the attack. This was too much.

"There isn't much time now, but I would like to ask you a few questions. And I'd like you to tell me the truth," the fearsome metal humanoid glanced non-chalantly at Fox and Falco, prone on the sandy cavern floor. Falco's wound was bleeding freely and he groaned. A dim light shone from the lichen in the center of the room, casting strange shadows and reflections on the humanoid's armor. "Considering you are the only one who isn't incapacitated at the moment." 

Krystal shuddered in the humanoid's grasp and at its coldness. She hadn't realized how tall it was, easily seven feet.

"I-"

"Question one: Who are you?" The humanoid's grip loosened a little, allowing Krystal to breathe and speak easier, but it was still like wearing an iron shackle. 

Her voice was quiet, "My name is Krystal…member of the Star Fox Mercenary Team-"

"And the Avian?"

"Falco Lombardi, second wingmen-"

"The Cornerian?"

"Fox Mcloud, leader-"

"Who were you meeting here?" The Humanoid had skipped right to the quick.

"Jacabo."

"Who is Jacabo?" The humanoid went right on with its interrogation, its voice a staccato garble.

"A friend of Falco's…"

"Why were you meeting Jacabo?"

"To get information."

"About what?"

"I don't know-" The shackle grip immediately tightened into a vice, "I DON'T KNOW! He said he had something for us, information, he said…" Krystal's voice faded out as the weight of everything that had just happened began to penetrate her bones and find connections to earlier events. "He said… he was sorry…"

The vice like grip became more gentle and she was eased to the ground, the humanoid kneeling down in front of her as she trembled some more. 

"I'm sorry…" The garbled voice was softer, almost soothing, "I just had to be sure that you and your company had nothing to do with those Space Pirates, the shapes you saw earlier…"

Krystal nodded, then it came. The Shapes… "They followed us…"

"What did you say?"

"The bastards FOLLOWED US! THIS ENTIRE THING WAS A SET-UP!" Krystal rose angrily to her feet, nearly falling down again, the humanoid held her up, its voice chiding.

"You just figured that out, hm?"

Krystal and the metal Humanoid knelt over Falco, Fox having been assessed earlier. The Humanoid had said that he had a minor concussion, but would recover. If he didn't wake up soon enough then one of them would have to carry him out, which would be the Humanoid, considering that Krystal wasn't strong enough and had a broken rib, according to the Humanoid's assessment. 

"Can you tell what's wrong with someone just by looking?" Krystal asked, now trusting in this six to seven foot metal goliath for some reason unbeknownst to her.

"No, I use my scanning visor. It can tell me virtually anything there is to know about whatever I'm scanning."

"Oh." Krystal turned her attention to Falco, wondering for a brief moment what the Humanoid's scanner said about her.

When she removed Falco's leather jacket and shirt she could see that there was a terrible rip in the black flesh and blue matted feathers running from the middle of Falco's abdomen to his breastbone. His breath was wheezy and ragged as his glassy eyes, surrounded by soft crimson feathers, looked questioningly from the Humanoid to Krystal, then jerked back to the Humanoid, letting out a strangled noise of panic.

"Easy now," Krystal soothed, "Help's come…"

"He's lost a significant amount of blood, he'll probably need a transfusion…and his immune system is failing rapidly. It's a wonder he's still alive…What could have affected his immune-…! No. Get back-!"

"What? What's wrong?" Krystal examined her friend in an attempt to see what the other saw.

"He's been infected- I should have seen it sooner! – by a deadly parasite known as the X-"

"WHAT! What's that? Can you do anything?" Krystal interrupted.

"Not here, not now. We'll have to seal up his wound first, as soon as possible." the Humanoid brought up its shiny canon and tapped the side, revealing a small panel with a few buttons on it, "One moment…" It tapped the buttons in swift succession, the white light inside the canon growing dimmer.

"What's wrong? What are you doing?"

"I'm lowering the power on my ice beam."

Krystal thought for a moment. "Wait a minute, ice beam? You're not going to-"

"It's our only option, and our best. The ice will protect the wound and there'll be less of a chance of infection, since the ice is pure. And an infection could kill him," the Humanoid backed up a little and aimed its canon at Falco's wound, "I've got it on the lowest setting, so it shouldn't hurt. Much."

"…much?"

"Trust me. If everything works out he'll be fine." The canon recoiled slightly as a small dim swatch of energy leapt from the barrel and onto Falco's wound, ice spreading over it instantly and sealing it shut, staunching the bleeding. Falco began to shiver.

"Don't worry, it's just a result of the cold…" They watched as the shivering advanced into convulsions.

"You said he'd be fine!" Krystal shouted as flecks of foam began to form on Falco's open beak.

"I know I know! This shouldn't be happening…!" The Humanoid's head moved fearfully up and down Falco's shuddering body, "It's the virus-" The intensity of Falco's reaction escalated, echoing the panic of his caretakers. Then suddenly the convulsions stopped and he was still, like the victim of a strangling hand that had been forced to let go.

"…is he dead..?" Krystal asked quietly.

The Humanoid finished its scan, and let out a sigh of relief, "…no. Just unconscious." They watched as Falco's chest moved slightly up and down. There wasn't much time. "We have to get out of here. Pirates have a thing for speed."

Slippy Toad switched on his Mechanic's Friend? flashlight and shone it down the dim hallway. Fox had instructed that the power on the Great Fox be set on low, so as to avoid detection, so Slippy had to go around with a flashlight. The Great Fox looked kind of creepy in the dark with all that piping and grating in renovated areas. It didn't help that Slippy had fairly poor eyesight, being a frog, so he met his task with caution.

He had to find ROB.

ROB was his creation after all, it was rightly his job to figure out what went wrong. Even though nothing should have gone wrong. The only problems ROB ever had were with old parts, and those had been replaced recently. So something must have happened. Other people may not be concerned when their AI robots weren't on the bridge keeping watch or answering messages or following them around like a dog, but this was ROB. He was always there.

Stepping onto the turbo lift, Slippy continued his search and moved on to the third deck, the lowest, where most of the main systems and generators were as well as the manual controls for the main gun. He had already finished searching the second deck, a hangar and storage space as well as living quarters. The first was the smallest, the main deck. But now he was on the third so this didn't matter much.

"The unwary toad delved deeper into the bowels of the ship…" Slippy narrated dramatically as he walked, eyes wandering. He could forgive himself. It wasn't like there were tape recorders hidden in the walls or anything. "Actually, the word bowels is really over used…how about BASEMENT! Or maybe womb, no. That's pretty disgusting." He stuck his oversized tongue out. "Now I'm just creeping myself out and talking to myself all alone down here. ROB! Where are you?" 

There was a clattering of metal and a dark bulk slipped out of the shadows from Slippy's side. "Yes?"

Slippy nearly jumped out of his own skin as he turned around, flashing the beam from his Mechanic's Friend around wildly, finally settling on ROB. The leggy robot was extracting itself from in between some piping.

"ROB, what have you been doing all this time? Down here? Is everything okay? What were you doing in those pipes?" Slippy steadied his red cap to keep it from falling off his head.

"I am okay. Great Fox is okay. Now. There was some trouble with the main engine. But I fixed it," ROB replied in his monotonous, mechanical tone. The pincer hands opened and closed like clams while the rod-like arms were still at the robot's side. A shabbily painted ROB logo was emblazoned on its chest and the rectangular head had a few vertical slats for a mouth. A stripe of red paned Plexiglas marked the android's eyes near the top of its seven foot bulk.

"Really?" Slippy frowned a little, and aimed his flashlight at the mangled pipes, "I didn't notice anything…what was up?"

ROB paused before answering, then reached over and moved a pipe back into its place, "The left turbine's gear was twisted."

"Ah, I see," Slippy paled a bit, if what ROB said was true then the Great Fox should have been a plume of fire long ago, from overheating. "Then what were you doing in the pipes?"

"Maintenance." The light from Slippy's flashlight reflected off of the unlit pane of ROB's view port.

The robot was offline.

Crap.

And it was standing here talking in an inefficient and inherently un-ROB-like manner, leaving out details, telling him that it had fixed a two-ton twisted gear spoke that miraculously hadn't smashed into the other turbines and caused a chain reaction that would be similar to that of a nuclear weapon.

Slippy paused, dropped his flashlight, and ran to the turbo lift.

...To be continued...

A/N: I just thought I'd say I am ridiculously happy with the chapter. :D It was such a complete work in progress, and now I really feel that it's finished, all the pacing and the emotions, fight scenes, expressions, wording and descriptions feel right now. MUCH better, and I hope you can all tell you difference. HOWEVER, if you feel other-wise, please inform me so. I love hearing reader input. :)

Next... Ch. 6: The Second Creature 


	7. Public Service Announcent and Experiment

_A Brief Interlude Behind the Scenes: On Microsoft Word and Statistics_

Mungojerry sits in front of her computer, a lovely little Compaq, that is not so little. She stops and strokes something perching on her shoulder, which puffs out its furry little moon-white chest and churrs.

"Well, H-amn, how should we proceed?"

The little Luminoth rubs it's furry-antennaed head on her cheek before settling down to examine the situation. The bio-luminescent traceries on its exoskeleton glow red, sending bands of light through the patterns in thought. The wings move gently up and down to their own breeze. Finally, a small amber hologram appears on the computer desk depicting an assemblage of characters from the story. It turns to Mungojerry and blinks.

"Well, YEAH. I could've told you _that_-ah!"

The luminoth blinks again, then a light-bulb appears above its head.

"Don't change the subject! Did you see it, did it work!"

Incoherent luminoth mumbling.

"_I'll get back to that_-SEE! I did it again! Stuff in _ITALICS_! Let's hope it works on the net. Now, what were you saying?"

A large blinking arrow pointing down at the little luminoth appears in conjunction with a well rendered representation of a ham with an x through it.

"OH. Right. Yes, one moment-" the author turns to look at YOU! GAH! RUNSEVENDAYSGAHBADMOVIEWORSERJOKEWORSERGRAMMAR-.uh, I mean-"eh-hem, you pronounce the name "Hhh," like an exhalation, and "ahmn," almost like "amen," or, closer, "ahmen," but less "e," more "mnnnnnn," not, "Ham-en"- or any kind of pork..or meat."

"STOP!"

GASP!

"THIS CHAPTER IS BEING HI-JACKED!"

Mungojerry and H-amn twist around to see who's speaking, resulting in H-amn having to turn around again becau-I'm not explaining. You just think about it while I, Mungojerry, play with the point of view in this story ALLL I WANT-

"It is I, Ilia Volyova! _Svinoi!"_ ILIA VOLYOVA FIRES A BIG FANCY PLASMA GUN AT THE CEILING! TORCHING IT IN THE PROCESS!

Our author is calm. Her luminoth friend peaks from behind her shoulder. "ILIA Vol-YOVA! YOUR SO COOL!-..wait, what are _you_ doing here!"

The computer genius examines the box of Wheaties that suddenly appeared in her hands, then drops it and flails the gun around a bit before answering, "How am I supposed to know? You're the one who wrote me in."

Indeed. Huh. Uh- I mean..

"Perhaps you are trying to plug an oh-so-fabulous book you read recently? By Alastair Reynolds? Something called… Revelation Space? That totally blew your mind away and is one of the best you've read in a while?"

Mungojerry rubs her chin. "..yep. Sounds right. HEY! Underlines!"

"Huh?"

"You can go now, Ilia, I just like typing your name…and I don't want you rigging my computer with Palsy or something.."

"Bu-" But Ilia DISSAPPEARS! Her voice echoes in the ether, "_Can I have the food substance…?_" (SMALLER TEXT!)

"Um. Okay." The Wheaties are sent through a sudden temporal worm hole and are spit out onto the deck of the _Nostalgia for Infinity_, where they are assailed like a baby gazelle in the midst of the Serengeti.

Mungojerry nods. "Well, back to the drawing board, H-amn! We have two goals today; one, experiment with the effects of uploading word documents, and two, examining a pressing problem that plagues many an author."

"What problem is that?" says Samus, who happens to have appeared.

"Well, Samus, that's a question we'll leave for later! First, we must focus on more pressing matters, like my experiment..!" Mungojerry begins to grin. Both H-amn and Samus take a step back, then Samus sees the luminoth and begins to poke it, resulting in a mini-luminoth bouncing around in its own protective little orb around the room. Like an alien moth-man in a floating electromagnetic hamster ball.

"DISSAPATE! MUST POKE!"

Mungojerry makes use of an emoticon, -.-, then snaps her fingers again, prompting a large white dragon, Captain Falcon, and…uh…Yoshi and Zelda to appear. Yoshi promptly robs all of their dignity by eating them and transforming them into eggs, except for the dragon, who hits Yoshi in the face with his tail. For good measure, Marth drops out of the air as well, landing on his butt.

"OKAY PEOPLE! I called you all here POR UN REASON!" Navi appears and her and H-amn begin having their own little floating orb war, because Mungojerry finds that amusing.

"Isn't it un-wise to mess with time and space?" asks Zelda.

All shrug and continue betting on who will win. Eh, it's fanfiction.

"Hey.." Marth spoke tentatively, "this isn't a continuation of…The Meatloaf Chronicles, is it..?"

**BOLD, _CENTERED_, LARGE TEXT AND PRIMAL SCREAMS! OH, THE HORROR!**

"WHAGGA-KA-" the author chokes on dust clouds shaped like familiar video game characters. The white dragon stays where it is and blinks; it doesn't know any better. It snaps at a passing bird that flew through the hole in the ceiling. "No, no no no…nothing to fear!" under her breath MJ mutters predictably, and hacks some more, "-yet-", then, louder, "We're doing a different kind of experiment today. And it's going to be very short so that I can get to a more important point; I think I'm losing my audience."

Cut to a shot of an empty computer chair and buzzing computer with one of those scrolling screensavers. A tumble weed made from printer paper rolls by in tandem with the marquee "...are they gone? ….good…now I can corrupt all their tax files and rig myself to come on in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. Then I'll jam the printer-"

Cut back to Mungojerry's computer room, where there is still no one in sight except the uBeR MyStErIoUs WhItE dRaGoN, Yoshi and H-amn. Each is crunching on a bucket of KFC; H-amn just perches on the edge of his. HOW CUUU- er-

Everyone cautiously peeks from behind couches and chairs, under carpets and magical glamours that turn their wearers into potted cactus. Yoshi tips his sunglasses, sipping on some iced-tea, "Actually, I didn't mind the 'Chronicles so much-I get to be Morpheus, and I'm not an eating machine!"

"OH, FORGET IT! JUST FORGET IT!" Mungojerry has a little conniption, glasses askew. Actually, I don't wear glasses, they're just there for effect. After some deep breathing on the part of the author and several fearful glances exchanged between our heroes, Mungojerry settles back into her seat. "Cut the experiment. I've already done enough testing as it is. SHOO!" Everyone except H-amn, the dragon, (Yoshi sneak attacks him into an eggshell before booking it), and...uh….Captain Falcon, leave in a hurried manner. The conga-dancing crickets from Meatloaf Chronicles do their thing, because they're on contract and I don't want to pay them for sipping margaritas and watching/mimicking Dancing with the Stars all day.

"So..why am I still here," starts Captain Falcon, "you're not going to subject me to…torture and turn me into…a-scary, drooling idiot scape-goat for readers to hate-are you!" He begins weeping on his hands and knees. "PLEASE! NO! ANYTHING BUT THA-A-AAAT-!11!11111111!1!11!1!"

"Oh, please! You're just here to help with the public service announcement."

Falcon blows his nose with one of my throw blankets-the little!-"R-really?"

"Yeah, and since this gets more abysmal by the line, let's finish it up--RIGHT NOW--okay!" Mungojerry pulls a giant megaphone out from under her chair, "PLACES EVERYONE! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!-"

:CUT-BUZZ-TV-SNOW-CRRRSSHHSSCCH…_ping!_:

We now see a scene similar to the one before, albeit, through a low quality, shaky camera lens.

(offscreen stage-whisper): _Falcon! Keep the camera STEADY!_

(still offscreen): sniff ..but-b-but..I'm so..HAPPY! BIG sniff People don't hate me! LOOK AT ME NOW, WORLD! I FILM INFO-MERCIALS-!

(more of the same): KEEP IT DOWN-! Or..or…I'll make you read The Old Man and the Sea and write an essay 'bout it!

Falcon: (instantly shuts up, the camera becomes a mite steadier)

Now Mungojerry now sits at her seat, hands folded in her lap. She stares at the key board blankly, then looks at the screen. An amber holographic of one of those smokey twisty frustration thingies appears above her curly head, followed by a little bit of steam escaping from the ears.

: Effects provided by LumiWorks – Inexpensive, alien solutions to high quality work::

The white dragon saunters, onto the scene, then glances at a live feed, seeing that he is blocking the whole shot, and backs up so that just his sinuous, white neck and crested head are in view, peering over Mungojerry's shoulder.

WhiteDragon(in patented angelic, sonorous voice): You seem to have a problem.

Mungojerry: Uh, YEAH.

WD: …what is it?

Mungojerry: Okay, see this! (points to newly acquired stats page)

WD: Uh huh.

Mungojerry: Now, look at THIS! (Ah! The friendly author stats page.) _151 hits!_

WD: ..and you're on a C2!

..really! You hear a rush of pounding feet as I go check. … …I'M ON A C2! THAT'S SO COOL!

HERE'S A THANKS FOR TWILIGHT-LINK FOR ADDING ME TO HIS/HER C2 LIST:D

Eh-hem.

WD: 151 hits! That's a lovely number. ..why are you upset then?

Mungojerry: ..okay…151 hits, ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-ONE, and not ONE single review to show for it.

WD: ..you're kidding.

Mungojerry: Nope.

WD:…that's ridiculous.

Mungojerry: I know. Not that I don't appreciate the readership, but DUDE, some feedback would be, I dunno, NICE. How am I supposed to know whether or not I'm going about this the right way? Are the editions I made to this latest chapter good or bad? I thought they were REALLY significant and made quite a difference; can my READERS tell? Do they think the same way?

Do they LIKE IT?

HATE IT?

Do they CARE for such editions or work style!

Do the characters seem properly fleshed out?

ARE THEY EVEN READING THE WHOLE THING?

For goodness sake! With 151 hits, you'd think I'd get SOME sort of feedback! But not even ONE. Not a "that sucked" or "WOO!" or "now I'll make a freakish critical analysis of this chapter.."

SNIFF!SOB _my dog is dead…my dog is DEEEEEAD….. .boy these drops sting.._

And it's not just me! It's authors everywhere, all over the site, decent authors with high quality work that don't get the reviews they deserve! (I am pointing to YOU, fans who frequent the Metroid section! There is some HIGH CALIBRE stuff there, read it and tell the authors you did so! Check out the Metroid Exchange C2!)

WD: (turns his eyes on the viewer and they grow bright blue) ...SHAME ON YOU!

H-amn hovers in from the side and uses the choppy black and white snapper thing to cut the scene, someone holds up a piece of notebook paper with something scrawled on it:

Do yur prt! Save teh wales!11!

This is immediately snatched down and replaced with a more fancy wooden sign held up by a bear paw:

Only _YOU_, and beta-readers, can help improve fanfiction! For craps sake, give us all some feedback!

BZZZZZZZTT

Dime-a-Dozen Studios, a subsidiary of MjInc, would like to thank Smokey the Bear for his cooperation.

..well, that's it. It's late, and I have a job now, so…thank-you for those who read the entire thing. I felt the need to vent. And for Far Within's sake, here's something you might find interesting, it's Far Within in its proto-stage! The first few chapters. I actually like them better than some of the stuff I have up now, but I'm not happy with their length. Enjoy! (?)

She was on a barren plateau, in the middle of Nowhere. At least it seemed like it. The sand was paled by the overly bright light that seemed to come from every direction. The plateau ended somewhere. She couldn't quite see.

Zelda kept walking forward. She was searching for something. The edge of the plateau. The walking felt mechanical, as if her legs were moving of their own will. Then she noticed how she was dressed. Zelda wore the white scarf and blue suite of her Sheikah garb, the red eye seemed to stare at her, prodding her mind. It almost seemed as if it were floating in front of her face, perspective warped.

The eye faded and she was at looking at the edge. But Zelda wasn't alone. standing near the very edge was Link, sword tip planted firmly in the ground, hands folded on top, eyes looking away into the nothingness. Something was wrong. "Link..?" But no sound came out, the only thing she could conjure up was a worry furrowed brow as she reached to touch his shoulder.

Abruptly Link whipped around, slicing up where her torso was, cutting it in two.. or it would have had she not moved back in time. Zelda's eyes held a look of alarm. Link's eyes...they scared her more than the glittering blade. They were empty.

Link kept swinging his sword, trying to hit her.

What was wrong...? The edges of the plateau grew closer, until there was just two inches of space that kept her out of the white Nothingness.

Link swung again, and connected.

She felt pain in her shoulder. When she brought up her hand it was like moving through molasses, and it took her ages to see that her hand was red. She looked up to see Link's eyes, as they flickered into life again, she saw the terror there. Abruptly, the white turned to gray, gray to black, and darker still, the blackness became a tangible thing, and disappeared so did Link. Then she was falling...down deeper, into the white, the gray, and finally..

She woke up wailing.

--------------------------------

As did a certain ace pilot of the Lylatian system.

Ch. 3

Fox woke up surrounded by a blur that eventually resolved itself into his very own team-mates, plus one. They all looked as if they had seen his dad, the way he had.

Fox's room was lightly furnished, with a bed that stuck out of the wall and a small table that did the same. Across the room was a closet that held his various clothes, though they were not quite varied themselves. Hidden in the recesses of the closet were a few blasters, and some odd looking instruments that he had acquired during his travels. On another wall he had hung a few pictures; mostly of "The Gang." There was one with Slippy working under one of the arwings, face black with the exhaust that the small, versatile ship had seemed to spew out all it's own.. (up in the corner you could see Falco in the cockpit.) Another showed all three of them, taking dramatic poses and trying to look severe. The next one was special. It had Slippy with tape over his mouth and both Peppy and Falco on either side, thumbs up, grinning mischievously and winking. The last picture was hard to look at. The picture showed a young fox hanging out of his cockpit side, grinning at the camera and giving a pig a noogy, while a spry, lean looking hare held it in place. Fox always had to look twice to tell that the hare was Peppy. The pig was Pigma, and the fox was James Mcloud, his father.

"Fox! What's wrong..?" Peppy looked older than usual and Falco had his feathers ruffled.

"C'mon buddy, what happened!" Slippy was just as pale. Fox was confused, what had happened? He voiced his thoughts, "What?"

"You were yelling Fox...for a full five minutes…" Peppy's news hit him hard. Now he remembered...his father.

"It-it was just a nightmare." Falco stepped forward.

"JUST a nightmare, MY TAIL FEATHERS! When YOU have a nightmare that wakes even _ME_ up, as WELL as alarming _ROB_, I think it must have been _QUITE_ the nightmare!" Fox was mentally backed up against a wall now. Peppy sensed his dumbstruck ness with that sixth sense and wisdom that all with many years had. "C'mon everyone... move along now, nothing more to see. We can talk about it in the morning...if Fox wants too," Peppy glanced at Fox. Falco grumbled as he left and Slippy shuffled out, still pale...Fox blinked. "Don't lose color over it Slip, I'm ok, REALLY..." they both smiled and Slippy nodded and scurried off to bed like a prompted child, promised a trip to the toy store in the morning. When everyone had gone, Peppy gave him a knowing look and said in a wizened voice,

"Do you need your special drink now...?"

"Nahhhh..."

"I think you do."

"Well... OK."

Peppy produced two mugs of hot chocolate.

And Krystal sighed, stepping away from the door. Fox could tell her about it later, if he needed to. She was in need of some sleep.

A/N)AGAIN): ..and that's that! I added the part about Krystal after I played Dinosaur Planet, because I thought she was cool and wanted her in the story. (Canon issues too.)


	8. Ch 8: The Second Creature

Ch. 6: The Second Creature

"_Ow!" Isaac Newton upon the discovery of gravity, (actually a myth, but amusing none-the-less.)_

Hovering in space, a small, undiscovered planet experienced dawn for the first time.

Gauzy white clouds that once wrapped up the world like a father's loving arms were slowly drawn apart; first in one place and then another. Shafts of white gold morning light fell like spears onto the ground, onto deep blue stone that shone like obsidian, oceans of green grass that billowed like the sea, lakes of water that glimmered silver and amber. A single tree with boughs connected and tangled like a child's kite string began to grow, new loops forming and fruit budding, forming lacy shadows on the grass.

At the bottom of the lake, something stirred.

The wind whispered across the surface, carrying a Call, sending the first ripples fleeing to the shore across the stillness. '_Wake Warrior. The time has come to fight. The Battle Lines are being drawn. The time has come to move. Dream no more and aid those who would stop that which sends Nightmares.'_

The sleeper at the bottom slowly stretched, shifting its neck and leg muscles, thrashing its tail. It unfolded its wings underwater, stretching them taut to their fullest span, the light from above passing through the translucent membrane and casting a multitude of spectrums on the lake floor.

Slowly but powerfully, the outstretched wings rose up until their tips barely touched the surface of the water, mirrored.

Then, in one quick and fluid motion, they beat down and lifted the beast out of the water in an explosion of foam and white flesh.

It took its first deep breath of the free air in the form of a deep, sonorous cry and opened its eyes, bluer than the surrounding stone.

The new beast soared over the lake, then sharply ascended into the sky and out of sight, exiting the world through an opening in the clouds.

" blank this planet."- _What's his face from the movie, "Red Planet."_

_Fox…_ A strong voice echoed into the distance, sounding out to the horizon and from it at the same time. The Grey horizon, where light hovered uncertainly on the lip of the world, undecided whether or not it would rise, illuminating the restless ground, or sink into darkness.

_…Fox…_ The ground churned like smoke and the voice was gentle.

_What are you?_

_You know who I am._ Time seemed slowed. Fox was afraid. He felt small.

The face of the landscape changed drastically and violently, time was forced forward and the smoke rushed with the wind to a point where it formed a violent cloud that rose up and formed a bony hand that raked its fingers across the ground. The sky grew dark and the land was filled with the cloud's screams.

_DO YOU WANT TO KNOoOW! _It fell apart and formed a roaring dervish that swept down upon him…

Fox Mcloud groaned out loud. His eyelids felt like they were glued shut, images he didn't want to see playing across them like those of a fever dream or gnats. He struggled to open his eyes. He knew that he'd won the struggle when he saw a bluish blur with an anxious face hovering over him.

"Déjà vu..?" he said weakly. Krystal smiled, looking relieved, and called to someone over her shoulder. Fox wasn't quite awake yet and he shook his head, trying to clear his mind. Where was he again? He felt a dull pain above his eyes.

Another figure bent over him and said carefully, "Fox Mcloud, can you hear me?"

"Oww…Uh, yes?" That was his name after all.

"I need you to lie still for a moment, everything is alright," the strange voice soothed. That wasn't Krystal-

"Okay." -but it was reassuring enough. He heard a beeping, followed by voices that drifted over him.

"Mild concussion. _Really_. He seems a bit out of it, but okay."

"I can see that…will he be able to move around?"

"He should be able to get up; he really doesn't have any choice in the matter."

"What's the matter?" Fox mumbled.

The speaker, who wasn't Krystal, turned to him and said, "You were attacked-- by space pirates. I fought them off, but they'll be returning soon."

Fox mulled this over in his mind. "Oh, okay." He examined Krystal's helper and saw his

face reflected in a green visor set in a blood red helmet. "… Do I know you?"

"No," the helmet person turned to Krystal again and was about to say something, but Fox interrupted her.

"Do we know any…big white hands?" Both the helmet and Krystal turned to look at him again.

"Delirium." A shrug.

Krystal nodded in agreement and Fox felt himself being lifted, heard a grunt. "C'mon, Fox! You're going to have to help me out a little here…" That was Krystal. He fell forward onto his knees and unsteadily rose from there, Krystal putting his arm around her shoulder.

Fox turned to her and said, "Thank you, Periwinkle. I had a dream, but you weren't in it."

"That's a relief, I think..."

"It was really scary."

Krystal said, "Are you sure he's okay?"

"A white beast rose out of the mists and bore down upon me…" Fox looked around and his attention fell upon the helmeted figure, picking up Falco and carefully cradling him in its arms. Copper and red armor…canon…pirates…warrior…random bits of information he had heard over the years fell into the form of a rough picture.

"Hey!" Fox said.

Krystal's Humanoid responded, "What?"

"You're The Hunter aren't you?" Fox wasn't sure where he'd gotten _that_ bit.

Maybe Falco had mentioned it somewhere.

The Humanoid paused for a moment, "Sure," then adjusted her hold on Falco and motioned for Krystal to follow her down a nearby passageway, striding ahead at a quick pace. Krystal watched the other for a moment, then prodded Fox and they hobbled after.

When Krystal and Fox had caught up as much as Krystal thought they could, she questioned quietly, "The _Hunter?_"

The Humanoid chuckled and said, "Some call me that," the green lights on her armor illuminated the passage, a lava tube, "But my real name is Samus Aran."

Deep in the Ur-Jax, down a wayward stone corridor, a small mechanical apparatus flickered to life. It was attached to the shoulder of a most despicable creature, tall and insect-like with tubing protruding from unnatural places on its body.

The space pirate pressed a few buttons and adjusted a dial. Under the other arm he carried a Plexiglas container filled with a misty blue fluid. The red insignia of captain was stamped across his chest plate.

Across from it stood another pirate, this one with a mechanical arm. The only other one of it's brethren to survive the Hunter's unexpected attack.

They had been unprepared. He had been lucky not to have been damaged. If he had, he may well have been subjected to scientific probing and torture of the worst kind, since he would have been considered worthless and a failure, his usefulness limited to that of a lab animal. He had survived it the first time, and even came out with a lucky enhancement, but he couldn't endure another round.

It had been far too painful and taxing; it had been worth it.

The only reason he had been released the first time was to test the use of the enhancement itself: it worked beautifully. The top part of the arm had the look of a metal pole with geometric etchings down the sides, electrical guides. A silver, sort of stretchy metallic substance was strung from key points on the complicated looking shoulder joint to short parts that radiated from the elbow joint in organic forms that mimicked a musculature system. He had never figured out what the substance was. The forearm was encased in a curved metal sleeve that got larger as it came down to the wrist, making it look bigger than the upper arm. He flexed his fingers, more skeletal and scythe-like than even a normal space pirate's. Not always serving as well as their name implied, they made up for it by making considerably dangerous melee weapons. Mounted on the wrist, slightly imbedded into the sleeve, was the standard pirate Galvanic Accelerator beam weapon. The engineers who made the arm had tried to make the beam more powerful, but eventually decided that it would take too much power away from the cloak. To put the icing on the proverbial cake, imbedded into the entire system was an advanced neural network, allowing him to feel and operate the arm with even more efficiency than he had his real one.

He had adapted to it nicely.

The comm unit on the former pirate sparked a little, and then began to emit a low hum that announced that it was ready to receive and relay a transmission. The captain spoke into it using the course, hissing language of the pirates.

The mission was a failure. The Hunter appeared. The - "Master" - did not do his job! There are only two of us left, myself and Reyaer. We also have the X with us. We need four AAA stealth squads. Here. Now. They must all die… The Captain shifted his grip on the container and reconsidered something. The blue goo inside seemed to shudder. …on second thought, I want the Hunter captured alive for study. That is all. The Captain tapped the device and the transmission was sent.

Was that a wise decision, Morwn? Reyaer asked, hissing quietly. Being his captain's trusted second, Reyaer could speak to him directly without fear of punishment. You might as well have ordered them to leap into an open reactor. 

I am aware. However, it has always been a priority for us to capture that hominid. We _must_ have that sort of technology. And we obviously cannot rely on the Master and his "contact" to get things done. The captain snarled. Besides, two animals from the mercenary team were wounded. The Hunter and the blue one will obviously not leave them behind. Poor tactics. They'll be slowed and distracted. 

She's the Hunter, Morwn. 

Naturally. But I doubt she can handle thirty-six of us at once. 

Reyaer shifted uneasily, Still, we should have an alternate course of action. 

What do _you_ have in mind? Morwn scoffed, but Reyaer noted with satisfaction that his superior, twenty years his senior, was attentive.

Their likely escape ship, The Great Fox, is just a little south east of here. It could be easily sabotaged if we snuck in somehow. That way, if the others happened to fail, the objective would still be achieved when they reached orbital altitude. 

Captain Morwn seemed to consider this for a time, even though Reyaer knew that he had already decided what to do, (appearances of dominance had to be kept up), then leapt up out of the path and onto the dangerous, uneven surface of the real Ur-Jax, the plane above the by-ways.

A good plan. Let us be off, then. Engage your cloaking device. 

Sir. Morwn didn't need to say it twice. Reyaer joined him at the top and the two of them disappeared.

"You do know--where you're going--right?" gasped Krystal as she continued to haul Fox through the subterranean tunnels, "I mean--we should be--heading to the Great-Fox--our ship--"

Samus slowed a bit, "Do you remember the way…?"

Krystal stopped and caught her breath; her endurance was never that great, and it hadn't prospered while she was cooped up on the Great Fox. She couldn't perceive how Samus kept up the pace. They had been going for a good ten minutes through the twisting, confusing tunnels. "A little bit."

Samus, unimpressed by this answer, was about to continue on when Krystal made her stop.

"It can't be that far away, though! And we have medical and repair facilities, and a drive and powerful offensive systems--" frantically, Krystal tried to sell the idea of The Great Fox to Samus, "I've got a good sense of direction. If we go to the surface now, _I could find it_."

Even though Krystal could read no emotions through the green visor, she could tell Samus was weighing their options carefully.

"I have your word that you can find your ship within five minutes after we've reached the surface?"

"You have it."

The hunter gave her a measuring look, using a scanner of a different sort. "Fine then, but follow closely and get the lead out. We've taken too long already," Samus quipped and continued up the tunnel, making sure not to bump Falco against the walls.

The blue vixen felt a flood of relief, even if she wasn't half as confident as she sounded about finding the Great Fox. A thought occurred to her.

"Where were you leading us in the first place, Samus?"

There was nothing but the sound of group's movement echoing down the passage for a few moments, then Samus answered, "To my own ship, but it doesn't have up-to-date medical facilities, much room, or a decent weapons system, so I figure yours is the best bet."

As she was in the lead, Samus wasn't able to see the look on Krystal's face; she was too busy considering what to do about her ship. And Adam. She'd deal with it once she got to the surface.

Krystal thought that she was going to drop dead right there, underground, with Fox babbling beside her as a swan's song to accompany her to Heaven, when they finally reached open air. The tunnel opened up into a spacious, if rocky area large enough to accommodate The Great Fox several times over. The stars were beginning to once again recede into non-chalance and the sunrise tinged the horizon a delicate pink, its light staining the clouds red. Rosy stone climbed like amorphous trunks out of their own warped roots and high wall-base surrounding the clearing. She breathed it in, then squinted.

"Wow, that's bright," Fox kept up his running commentary. He was right. After the dismal dark of the tunnels, the open air was uncomfortably bright, even with the weak light. Krystal glanced over at Samus to see how she was dealing.

The visor had darkened to compensate, and Krystal guessed that it would gradually re-introduce Samus's eyes to the light.

"I think I resent you," she said to Samus, who was warily scanning the area, literally.

The Hunter took a moment to reply, and, in fact, didn't seem to be paying her any mind; she had two fingers up next to her visor, and Krystal thought she heard some muffled speech, then Samus nodded slightly and let her hand fall. She faced Krystal's quizzical expression, "That's nice. Can you scramble up the walls yourself, or do I need to help you?" replied Samus with impatience, gently laying down Falco.

"I think you're going to have to help me, I'm not a good rock-climber. Especially if the rock face is nearly ninety degrees," Krystal replied tartly as she brought Fox over to a rocky outcropping and propped him up against it.

"Don't leave me here, Krystal…" he said weakly from the ground.

She paused and looked back at him, "I won't. Don't fall asleep there either," she responded quietly as she jogged over to Samus, who waited by a wall.

Krystal looked at Samus strangely as bounty hunter bent down and cupped her hands. Samus stared back for a moment before saying, "What, do you want to try to climb on my shoulders? I don't think that would work. Now step up and be quick; your friend's life is on the line and we can't chance being seen."

Krystal nodded and stepped up, keeping her hands on the wall of rock to keep from falling over. As Samus lifted her up, she gripped the lip of the wall and pulled herself up the rest of the way, then peeped over again and asked, "Who were you talking to?"

Samus sighed in exasperation. "I was sending orders to my ship; it'll keep track of us and then follow us when we leave the planet. Get moving!"

A pause of thought, another nod of affirmation, and the fox withdrew from sight.

Samus stared up after her, "What do you see?" A few pebbles scampered down and she thought she saw the flick of a bushy, light blue tail.

"It's so surreal up here!" Krystal yelled back. It felt like she was on the surface of the biggest hunk of Swiss cheese to ever have existed.

"Keep it down!"

"Sorry…"

"Do you see your ship?"

There was a long pause. "One moment…" Some scrambling was heard as Krystal climbed up higher on a precipice, "Yes! Off to the south, it's the Great Fox!" She could see it, plain as day, upper wings sticking up out of the maze like sails at sea; distance made them look delicate. Another avalanche of stones came down as Krystal slid down the precipice and lowered herself off of the wall, "I never thought I'd be so happy to see that hunk of alloy!"

"Are you certain that was your ship?" asked Samus.

"Of course it was! Who else would be crazy enough to land in this maze of death! Let's get moving!" The two of them ran back to where Falco and Fox were. Krystal felt chipper, even if they were going to have to really haul it if they wanted to spare another run in with the

pirates.

"I _knew_ you wouldn't leave me here!" Fox chimed as Krystal helped him up, "I thought I was going to be eaten."

Krystal snorted, very uncharacteristic, and replied, "By what? The rocks?"

"No," Fox replied pointedly, "by the lobster bug things."

Samus froze.

...To be continued...

A/N: I'm late in getting this up, it should've been uploaded a LOOONG time ago. I didn't have much to edit here, thought it probably needs it in a few places. I did add some things, thought, like filling in a small pot-hole or two. It's not the best read ever, but I hoped you all enjoyed it. Thank you for reading!

Ah! And I'd also like to thank those who responded to my frustrated plea for opinions.  I greatly appreciate your careful review, Mild Guy, and totally agree with your crits. (Although I was purposely trying to be silly with the dialogue in chapter 1. Kinda unpolished, I know…) I'll try to keep your advice in mind, and can't wait to see some more of your work! BIG FAT THANKS TO; Sylvia Viridian, (I'm afraid the white dragon is an original character..sorry! But the show sounds interesting.), Tikitiki, keep up the craziness, and Ri2, (It is small because I waved my magic creative wand and it SHRUNK. Yes. And having a "pet" luminoth that's normal sized would be, well..kinda' weird. IMO. Errm..MOVING ON!).

Next... Ch. 6: The Day the Hunter Fell


	9. Ch 9: The Day the Hunter Fell

A/N: Man. There are probably still some critical changes I could make here, but I really don't care anymore. I just want the little monster up on the net so I can move on. Perhaps you'll enjoy it. :) I'm guessing, when/if I get up any original chapters, the style will be way different. We'll see...

**Ch. 7: The Day the Hunter Fell**

"_WHAT!_" Samus blanched. _How could the pirates have found them already? What drove them to such lengths?_

Why_ hadn't she seen anything?_

Fox's eyes struggled to focus on Samus as he answered, "…like, lobsters, skinless lobsters with oily muscles— y 'know what I'm saying?"

"WHERE, MCLOUD!"

"EVER-y-where," Fox responded in a day dreamy voice, accentuating each syllable with a roll of his head, "Uhhhgg…"

Krystal's eyes darted back and forth from Fox to the surrounding peaks, fear exaggerating both the size of her eyeballs and the rock. She couldn't handle these creatures, cloaked or no. She _hated_ them. "Fox?" When he didn't answer, she reached out and gripped his shoulders. "_FOX!_"

In response he gave a groan of pain, and then mumbled, "STOP…that dancing—you don't fit the can-can—"

Samus's metal hand caught Krystal. "_Don't panic, yet_," she hissed, "You're not helping anything, and you're making too much noise!"

Grimacing, Krystal said, "Samus, I _really_ don't want to die here."

The hunter only nodded, letting her hand drop and turning her attention back to their surroundings. The light in the sky grew brighter by the moment. The rays seemed to seep into the stained atmosphere, refract, and give it the appearance of alien stained glass. Like a huge fungal colony, thick storm clouds collected to the southeast and crept towards their present location. The rock columns twisted into each other in sharp relief against the atmosphere and grew beards of hardy scrub plants. Nothing shifted amongst the precipices and small talus slopes except their hue and shade. The landscape seemed perfectly content to keep to itself and Samus could find no trace of the creatures Fox saw. "…I don't see anything. We're totally alone right now," she muttered as her hand slowly fell from the side of her helmet.

"But, Fox-"

"Is hallucinatory," _he must be_,"what he says can't be trusted," Samus said. "Listen to him, he thinks we're dancing."

"But-"

"Let's move." Samus wanted to leave as soon as possible, driven by a terrible sense of unease. Despite whatever trauma he may have suffered, Fox's description fit the pirate anatomy too perfectly.

Sighing, Krystal gave the rocks a scan herself using simply her ears, eyes, and vulpine nose. Samus had saved them, but that didn't mean she totally trusted her judgment or her technology. Hefting Fox and Falco in turn, they started down a path that would lead them to the Great Fox.

Krystal stopped at the beginning of the trail, blue ears swinging back.

Samus took a few strides more before noticing that Krystal hadn't moved. When she no longer heard the fox's light steps, she spun in exasperation. "What?"

The cerinian vulpine's dainty snout wrinkled like something left in a washer. "What's that smell?"

--------

'Captain…'

'Yes, Reyaer?' The two cloaked pirates were perched high on the fiery colored rocks. The long shadows of sunrise hid the only hint of their presence, a wavy distortion pattern that shimmered like a desert mirage. Except for the rare occasion when one of them shifted their weight, all was still.

Reyaer spoke. 'What are we waiting for, Morwn? The ship is right there...' Indeed, the Great Fox glistened in the light of dawn not a few meters away. The dorsal wing reached high into the air, challenging the stone spires around it— beckoning to Reyaer. And he wasn't allowed to snarl at it without his captain's orders. He could talk, he could suggest a strategy, but he couldn't budge unless given instruction. Impatience made his insides flutter like a swarm of rios, but he didn't mind enough to set them free and do as he wished. He could always trust his captain when the trail became rocky and uncertain.

'We must wait until the AAA units make their move. I'd like to keep this organized' the captain let out a hiss of air, the pirate equivalent of a sigh, 'An attack is most effective in waves; remember that. Each erodes a little bit of the enemy's power.' Morwn said in a voice both deep and scarred, like the sounds themselves were veterans of conflict.

'I think we are a bit more like a chozo ghost; we must strike and be gone.' Reyaer answered as he fingered the unarmed explosive, clipped to his waist, with a claw.

'Exactly. But, I'd prefer to see the attack with my own eyes. We can't be caught off guard. Again.'

Reyaer nodded in response and turned his attention back to the Great Fox. It was a large ship of a class he couldn't identify. The hull was metallic white in color, made of a reinforced alloy. He noted that it would be very hard to breach, and that he would probably have to make his own entrance. The main body of the ship was fat, with four, long wings forming ventral angles to the side while the top tapered to the aforementioned dorsal wing. At the front the body tapered and rose up, then widened again into the main deck. He snorted as he realized that it looked like the head and neck of an animal. Below the neck, on the breast of the ship, were two large charge canons and a smaller one directly below the main deck. On the very back, below and behind the dorsal, was a flat space, on the end of which was a huge propulsion booster. The entrance to the hangar was closed, as was the landing ramp. How was he supposed to get in?

A quick flash and an ear-hammering sound shocked from deep in the maze, painting stark silhouettes on the ground and forcing out an expanding bubble of dusty debris and hot air. It passed over, peppering their exoskeletons with loose earth and hard bits of metal; proximity mine. Not a very strong one, but effective in its purpose. Their Captain had wanted one of the enemy alive after all. Morwn raised a clawed hand, stopping Reyaer's reactionary movement short. After a few gut wrenching minutes, the corridors funneled to them the emphatic report of gunfire and struggle. Reyaer thought he could even see a few dancing flashes sparking through faraway gaps in the rock, but it was difficult to tell whose they were. When he returned his attention to his captain, he could see them dimly reflected on the glassy optic tubes sprouting from the sides of the pirate's head.

Morwn muttered quietly, 'Go.'

And Reyaer leapt off, down the precipice and sliding down the wall.

Morwn watched him head towards the ship, then, 'Reyaer!'

His second in command slid to a stop and looked back. The tone in his captain's voice— he had never heard such an inflection before in his life, and its timbre confused him.

'Reyaer'the wizened pirate said, 'Be quick.'

While they were both still, looking at each other, an observer might have had the time to note the peculiar similarities between the two personas, similar features in the horrifying faces and carapaces. Carriage and structure.

When a new pirate is born, it has no notion of whom or what a parent is. Love is considered a waste of time in pirate society, so new pirates are either clones or the result of genetic information taken from two individuals of different sex. It is one chance in thousands that a newborn in the later case will ever be in the same squad or scientific team as its genetic sire.

Reyaer saluted his captain and slipped away.

Morwn watched him go. He felt anxious.

--------

Samus's breath caught in her throat as the sand around them erupted. The shockwave from the blast threw her towards the nearest wall of the bowl. She spun out of control through the air and hit it front first, visor shattering and armor ringing like a bell, stinging her skin.

As she fell out of her own imprint, Samus wondered if she had ever been in any other situation that had proved, in _her_ opinion, worse than the present. A few rose from her memory; a time when she thought she was going to be killed by a giant Metroid, her own Hatchling; another where she barely avoided getting eaten by a giant mutant plant, several that encompassed escaping from maze-like facilities before they self destructed. The black-and-white difference between those times and now was that, back then, the only one she had to take care of was herself.

The scrape of rock on rock wove an ominous tapestry with the course language of pirate voices. She couldn't tell what frightened her more, the fact that the pirates had successfully created a cloak that defied her scanners, or the whirling dust that playfully obscured her vision, preventing her from forming a strategy.

Samus struggled to rise, putting a hand down, slipping, adding a foot and a knee. To her eyes, the blast had flung her opposite the trail they had taken, but that didn't give her many clues as to the location of her cohorts.

She COULD tell that her suit's energy level was dangerously low. She quickly eyed the dents in her armor, any holes that might be exposing her more vulnerable fusion suit layer, trying to assess whether or not any major systems were destroyed. If it got too low, it would reflect on her organic systems and she'd die.

Still dazed and trying not to lose it, Samus carefully crouched down next to the wall and considered her options, ignoring the scrapings of claws on stone that faded in and out all around, searching, taking their sweet time. She needed to find the others and get to the Great Fox— somehow. Falco had been cradled in her arms during the explosion, so he had to be nearby. She could only hope.

Samus began to crawl on her belly away from the wall to find him, cursing the dust clogged air, now gilded with diffused morning light. She might have found it beautiful at one time.

She wanted to laugh and cry. Where was the accursed wind that had helped form this damnable place? The stupid, howling wind that could blow all the dust away? She muttered epithets under her breath.

…As if in answer, there was a light breeze…

It started soft, as if in greeting, then slowly grew into the terrain tearing wind that it was truly known for. Samus balked, both at the timely appearance of the wind and the feel of it against her exposed face; the force felt cool, and the grains stung her eyes.

The clouds of earth began to blow easily away, windows of vision already materializing out of the gloom. Only half believing her good fortune, Samus continued to worm her way ahead, gasping in surprise and relief when she saw a mass of matted, dull blue feathers amongst the sand and debris.

With a burst of speed she began scrambling over to Falco on her hands and knees, slipping on the pebbles, hoping he had some breath left in his lungs.

With an equal suddenness that startled Samus, something smashed into her from the left like a speeding car and knocked her over. A nasty, unseen something snarled in triumph as its talloned foot squeezed the breath out of her chest and pinned her against the ground when she slid to a stop on her back, like an insect pegged on a collection board.

The pirate's breath made her gag as it leaned in close and hissed, spraying wet spittle at her unprotected face, then it straightened up and made a high pitched call. When the pirate uncloaked, she saw its massive frame, reddened as a by-product of some new alien technology. Shadows emerged all around as the rest of the pirates uncloaked and revealed themselves, drifting nearer like ghosts. For them, this moment would go down in the history books.

Samus gritted her teeth. There was no possible way she could take them all on. They'd gun her down and harvest her suit. Then they'd kill Falco where he lay, if he wasn't dead already, as well as Krystal and Fox. Being the inquisitive creatures that they were, the pirates would probably dissect them all.

_She wondered briefly if she should go into morphing ball mode and activate a power bomb; it would probably kill both her and Falco, but at least it would save them from a fate possibly worse than death. Not to mention it would take down more than a few of the pirates._

As more and more pirates began to gather and jeer at her like she was some circus spectacle, she realized that that wasn't an option, and never would be. It never was.

Samus switched her canon to the plasma beam, eyes dead set on the pirate above her. It had a quizzical expression on its monstrous face; it wasn't paying her any mind.

Then the nearest pirates were hurled away in balls of flame.

After Samus peered from behind her shielding arms, blinking in confusion, a familiar face peered at her through the faded gloom like the fabled Cheshire Cat, and grinned. "Hey, Sammy, you weren't thinking of turning in were you?" Abruptly turning away, Captain Falcon sent a few more pirates to their fiery doom with a round of one-two punches as they instantly turned their attention from her to him and attacked with unwavering fury. They fought differently than normal pirates; using skilled, twisting scythe movements and attack patterns, moving with the precision of blood red cats.

Captain Falcon's fighting style, by contrast, was not so calculated. He dove into the thickest press of them, tossing them to and fro with a flurry of flaming punches and kicks. Like a street fighter, he threw as much energy behind each punch as he could muster; like a street fighter, he seemed to be relishing the thrill of the fight. "THAT ONE'S FOR MY MOTHER, whoever she was, AND THIS ONE'S FOR MY INANIMATE SHIP!" A few hits from the pirates connected, but Falcon didn't seem to care. He was moving too fast to receive any grievous damage, orange flames discharging from every hit he gave.

Shaking off her astonishment, Samus leapt to her feet with as much speed as she could muster, powering up her plasma beam. She let it charge until she could feel the heat radiating in waves and embers danced on the breeze, then fired at the nearest of the pirates, watching as it caught fire and shrieked in pain.

Taking up a defensive position over Falco, Samus continued to send out the biting arcs of plasma, trying to cover herself and Captain Falcon the best that she could. A large group of pirates broke off from the ones attacking Falcon and focused their efforts on her, quickly regretting the maneuver when she turned on her flamethrower, ducked a scythe at the same time, keeping her balance with her other hand. Rather than focus on the offensive, Samus left that to Falcon and played king of the hill, avoiding a melee battle as much as possible and keeping the pirates at bay with her beam weaponry.

But they couldn't keep this up forever. She only had so many missiles to fuel her flame thrower and other more powerful weapons with, not to mention that Falcon was beginning to slow down, each punch weaker than the next. Whatever energy that fed his flame based tactics and superhuman speed was beginning to wane. A pirate that lay burning on the ground reached weakly for her foot and she kicked it away, shooting another that was upright.

"FALCON!"

A flurry of pirates flew into the air in answer. "WHAT?"

"WE NEED TO FIND MY FRIENDS AND GET OUT OF HERE, QUICK!"

"HOW? IT'S LIKE THERE'S A NEVERENDING SUPPLY OF 'EM!" His words were accentuated by a yell as one of the pirates' scythes caught him in the side. He quickly swept it off its feet and kicked it into a boulder, clutching his new cut.

"I'LL USE MY ICE SPREADER TO SLOW THEM DOWN! GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

"_WHAT?_"

Samus wasn't listening for a reply, she was busy powering up her ice-beam. She whispered something that may have been a prayer before taking careful aim, releasing the shot into the thick of the pirate melee, barely missing Falcon as he dashed out of the line of fire. The recoil knocked her off balance.

A normal, charged ice beam shot when fired upon an enemy will immediately immobilize it in a shell of ice. When coupled with a missile, the ice spreads and expands with the added energy, like a super crystal, from the detonation point, imprisoning anything within radius. The pirates had no time to react when the ice missile screamed into their midst and interrupted their thoughts in a flash of white and subzero temperature, the ice crystal expanding at a rate too rapid for them to avoid.

Samus got shakily to her feet as Captain Falcon tapped his own image, reflected in the glimmering ice crystal that had stopped its expansion inches from his face.

After finishing off the few pirates that were free-moving, Falcon hobbled up to Samus, apparently having caught a wound in the leg. He slowly whistled in admiration, catching his breath. "Now _that's_ impressive!"

Samus's only reply was her thoughtful silence.

"…don't mind me or anything.." Falcon muttered, annoyed at being ignored. All that undeniable rescuing and not even a thank you… The stinging cuts didn't help either, who knew what those scythes were laced with?

He was caught off guard when a dirty blue bundle was thrust into his arms. "What the--!"

"Quickly! I need you to take him—" Samus gestured to the bundle in his arms which, on closer inspection, turned out to be some sort of humanoid bird, "to his ship. He needs medical attention right away. I don't know how they'll welcome you, but do it anyway. I'm going to stay here and look for the others." With that, she ran off into the rubble. "_Follow the path that starts with the hulking crater, and if that doesn't work, just…LOOK FOR A BIG SHIP!_"

Falcon was once again left speechless in a pile of rubble.

But the groan from the bird knocked him out of it.

"I guess I'm a nurse now...dang! _Who does she think she is?_ Some sort of _general?_ _Wonder woman_ maybe? Aw, wait, she is. I forgot," the racer muttered as he flew down the path, skipping over pirate bodies and rocks, ignoring the wound in his leg.

Samus was amazed at how hard it was to cope without her visor; if it were working she could have found the foxes in two seconds flat, but without it... She was walking on thin ice looking for them alone, and it was beginning to crack, literally. She raced around the bowl, looking for any sign of them; a hair or maybe one of their weapons sticking up out of the rubble. The sun was shining directly into the bowl now and catching sight of something metallic wouldn't be hard.

The ice encapsulating the pirates glittered in the sun, little drips began to run down in rivulets.

Samus thought she heard something for a moment, but it was just the wind singing a tuneless song. She began to digging around a pile of rocks, pushing the bigger ones out of the way. When that became hopeless she moved on to another. What if she didn't find them in time? Was she wasting hers?

The song had become louder.

Samus stopped in her tracks. Someone _was_ singing! No. KRYSTAL was singing; unbelievable. She began turning in circles, trying to find the source of the song. The ice was riddled with cracks by now and a few small pieces slid off and hit the ground with light, wet slaps.

The odd music was stronger now. She followed it to a pathetic pile of stone on top of a larger slab. How could they be under there? But it was definitely issuing from the rocks..

Another voice joined in, this one disjointed and just as tuneless.

The air was rent by a sharp crack and jointing began to branch off and encircle the iceberg.

No time for doubts. Samus began frantically pushing back the stones. "KRYSTAL! MCLOUD! ARE YOU IN THERE!" The singing stopped: Samus paused in her digging.

"SAA-AA-AMUS! SAMUS! GET US THE HECK OUT OF HERE!" That was definitely Krystal. "WE'RE STUCK IN A TUNNEL!" It seemed Fox was conscious, as he yelped in an undignified way.

"I'm working on it!" Samus dug down to the slab itself and laboriously pushed it out of the way, the friction humming down into the grotto. Eerie blue light issued from it, radiating from Krystal's staff. The two foxes stared up at Samus. Mcloud seemed alert, and they were leaning against each other for support. "How did you guys get all the way down there?"

Fox seemed about to say something buy Krystal cut him off, "I don't know, the blast threw us here and the ground caved in, what was that thing?"

"It doesn't matter right now, we just need to get out of here…wait one sec and I'll be right down."

"_Down?_"

Samus wasn't certain her jump jets still worked, nor whether or not she could carry someone while leaping, but she could still jump normally. Besides, there wasn't anymore time. The ice was beginning to slide off in larger pieces and she could see the pirates struggling slightly, eager to be free of their prison and wreak vengeance on their jailer--

She jumped back as something launched out of the grotto and landed beside her; it was Fox and Krystal, holding tightly to each other-- and the staff, though obviously not THAT tight because Krystal immediately fell over.

As Fox helped her up, Samus gaped. "How-?"

"Magic!" said Fox cheerily, patting the staff. His cheeriness immediately faded upon the sight of the mass of iced pirates. One lay free, gasping on the ground. It turned and roared at them, struggling to get up but slipping in the puddle of water.

"Holy-!" Fox fumbled for his blaster, almost dropping it and Krystal until Samus turned them both forcefully around and pushed them towards the path.

"RUUN!" Samus took the initiative and sprinted down the path herself, the two dazed foxes close behind, adrenaline fueling their hobbling. Following their departure was a mayhem of shattering ice and snarling. Samus slowed down and let Fox and Krystal catch up, keeping an eye on their backs.

"We're almost there!" Krystal gasped, dragging the staff at her side. Fox chanced a glance back, regretting it when he saw the pirates surge down the path like a river of blood. Samus continued to fire her plasma beam right behind them into the oncoming hoard, making some of the pirates trip and fall over their burning comrades while others leapt them like hurdles.

Like a breath of fresh air, the path in from of them slowly opened up into a massive bowl, housing the Great Fox in all its metallic glory. The sunlight glared off of the wings and the main view port like a beacon. As they struggled towards it, Samus saw Captain Falcon waving from the main deck, accompanied by a gray, humanoid rabbit. The landing ramp unfolded in welcome as they sped towards it and closed just as quickly as they hauled themselves up. But not before they heard the Great Fox's main gun fire upon the pirates, the reverberation following them into the ship's belly.

Samus tripped at the top of the landing ramp, the air rushing out of her lungs as she went crashing unceremoniously onto her face, Fox and Krystal joining her soon after on the grating.

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A/N: Wow. I made more editions before actually uploading, so I do feel a bit better. Thanks again to all my reviewers, and I'll try to take into account all that ya'll are suggesting when I edit and come up with something new. Thanks again!

Next... Ch. 9: High Command


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